AMERICAN  PAUPERISM 

AND 

THE  ABOLITION  OF  POVERTY 

BY 

ISADOR    LADOFF 

THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


AMERICAN  PAUPERISM 


AND 

THE  ABOLITION  OF  POVERTY 

BY 

ISADOR   LADOFF 

AUTHOR   OF   "THE    PASSING   OF   CAPITALISM,"  ETC. 


WITH  A  SUPPLEMENT 


JESUS    OR    MAMMON" 


BY 


J.  FELIX 


CHICAGO 

CHAELES  H.  KERR  &  COMPANY 

1904 


COPYRIGHT,  1904, 

BY 

GEARLSS  U.  KKRR  Jt  COMPANY 


JOHN  r.   H.aOINS^^^^u       196-1.8  CLARK  .T. 
PRINTER,  SINOEB^^eSS^^        CHICAGO,  ILIINOI* 


HV 
"11 
Ul25a 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

An  Appeal  to  the  Reader 5 

Pauperism  and  Poverty  in  the  United  States.  ...  ii 
The  Children  of  Poverty  in  the  United  States.  .  50 

Pennsylvania  Child  Labor 93 

The  Causes  of  Poverty  in  the  United  States.  ...  103 
The  Industrial  Evolution  of  the  United  States.  109 

The  Abolition  of  Poverty 167 

SUPPLEMENT:    Jesus  or  Mammon? 217 


139S217 


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AMERICAN  PAUPERISM 


AN  APPEAL  TO  THE  READER. 

You  know  that  we  live  in  an  age  of  great 
prosperity ;  that  the  United  States  exceeds  Great 
Britain  in  the  totals  of  her  domestic  export ;  that 
the  foreign  business  of  the  United  States  passes 
beyond  two  billion  dollars;  that  her  profits — 
that  is,  the  excess  of  exports  over  imports-- 
reaches  more  than  four  hundred  and  seventy-six 
million  dollars. 

You  know,  in  other  words,  that  the  United 
States  is  able  to  provide  sufficient  food,  clothing 
and  shelter,  foreign  and  domestic  goods  for 
comfortable  and  even  luxurious  living  for  her 
people,  and  sells  abroad  goods  at  the  rate  of  a 
million  and  a  half  dollars  in  cash  for  every  work- 
ing day. 

Vou  know  that  the  United  States  has  ceased  to 
be  a  nation-debtor  and  has  become  a  creditor- 
nation ;  that  the  bank  clearings  have  increased 
immensely,  while  the  number  of  receiverships 
steadily  decline;  that  there  never  was  such  an 
expansion  in  the  various  manufacturing  indus- 
tries ;  that  never  before  has  so  much  money  been 
in  circulation  in  the  country,  either  in  volume  or 
in  per  capita  distribution ;  that  never  before  were 

5 


6  AMERICAN    PAUrERISM. 

the  totals  of  the  people's  savings  in  the  banks  so 
enormous. 

You  know  that  the  United  States  grows  about 
eighty  per  cent  of  the  entire  cotton  crop  of  the 
world ;  that  it  is  the  greatest  producer  of  wheat 
among  all  countries ;  that  we  own  about  one-third 
of  all  the  swine  in  the  world ;  that  we  are  the 
greatest  cattle  raisers  among  the  nations. 

You  know  that  of  the  food -staples,  bread,  meat, 
butter,  milk,  vegetables  and  fruits,  we  are  the 
most  extensive  producers. 

You  know  that  as  a  clothing  producer  America 
is  abundantly  able  to  clothe  her  population  with- 
out any  assistance  from  foreign  nations ;  that  the 
United  States'  output  of  iron  and  steel  products 
was  in  1899  about  forty  per  cent  of  the  world's 
total ;  that  we  are  the  greatest  coal  producers,  fur- 
nishing more  than  one-third  of  the  world's  sup- 
ply ;  that  the  annual  supply  of  our  petroleum 
makes  up  one-half  of  the  total  output  of  the 
world. 

You  know  that  the  United  States  has  the  great- 
est mileage  of  railroads,  the  greatest  amount  of 
freight-transportation,  the  most  extensive  marine- 
traffic. 

You  know,  in  short,  that  the  economic  growth 
and  material  development  of  the  United  States, 
the  growth  of  wealth  of  the  entire  nation,  has  no 
precedent  in  the  history  of  humanity.  However, 
do  you  know  who  actually  enjoys  this  marvelous 
material  prosperity?  Do  you  know  what  price 
is  paid  for  this  prosperity  and  who  foots  up  the 
bill? 

Do  you  know  that  a  little  less  than  one-half  of 
the  families  of  the  United  States  are  property- 
less  ;  that  seven-eighths  of  the  families  hold  no 


AN    APPEAL    TO    THE    READKR.  7 

more  than  one-eighth  of  the  national  wcakh,  while 
one  per  cent  of  the  families  hold  more  than  the 
remaining  ninety-nine  per  cent? 

Do  you  know  that  the  wealthiest  ten  per  cent 
of  American  families  receive  approximately  the 
same  income  as  the  remaining  ninety  per  cent? 

Do  you  know  that  the  average  family's  income 
from  labor  cannot  be  put  higher  than  five  hun- 
dred dollars  in  towns  and  three  hundred  dollars 
in  the  rural  districts?  As  three-fifths  live  in 
rural  districts,  the  average  should  be  three  hun- 
dred eighty  dollars  annually  for  all. 

Do  you  know  that  more  than  five-sixths  of  the 
income  of  the  wealthiest  class  is  received  by  a 
hundred  twent}'-five  thousand  richest  families, 
while  less  than  one-half  of  the  income  of  the 
working  classes  is  received  by  the  poorest  6,500,- 
000;  in  other  words,  that  one  per  cent  of  our 
families  receive  nearly  one-fifth? 

Do  you  know-  that  in  fact  the  smallest  class 
of  wealthy  property  owners  receive  from  prop- 
erty alone  as  large  an  income  as  half  of  our  peo- 
ple receive  from  property  and  labor? 

Do  you  know  that  the  number  of  officially  rec- 
ognised paupers  in  the  United  States  is  not  less 
than  three  millions;  that  the  direct  and  indirect 
loss  in  money  due  to  pauperism  is  conservatively 
estimated  to  reach  at  least  one  hundred  million 
dollars  annually  ? 

Do  you  know  that  the  State  of  New  York,  the 
richest  state  in  the  Union,  carries  the  heaviest 
burden  of  pauperism,  not  merely  proportional  to 
its  population? 

Do  you  know  that  the  number  of  inmates  in 
various  charitable  institutions  of  the  State  of 
New  York  reaches  300,000;  while  the  total  num- 


8  AMERICAN    rAl'l'KUISM. 

ber  of  persons  relieved  annually  by  these  institu- 
tions reaches  the  figure  of  two  and  a  half  mil- 
lions? 

Do  }ou  know  that  one  in  four  of  the  entire 
tenement  population  of  the  city  of  New  York 
(about  300,000  or  350,000)  are  treated  free  of 
charge  annually  by  medical  charitable  institu- 
tions? 

Do  you  know  that  in  no  city  of  the  United 
States  will  the  number  of  children  supported  at 
public  expense  compare  in  proportion  to  popu- 
lation with  the  number  of  those  cared  for  in 
New  York  City  ? 

Do  >-ou  know  that  one  person  in  every  ten  who 
dies  in  the  City  of  New  York  is  buried  in  Pot- 
ter's Field? 

Do  you  know  that  the  increase  of  female  and 
child-labor  in  the  United  States  is  quite  pro- 
nounced in  comparison  with  the  increase  of  adult 
male  labor? 

Do  you  know  that  child  labor  increased  in  a 
single  decade  more  than  two  hundred  per  cent  in 
the  South  ? 

Do  you  know  that  nearly  one-sixth  of  all  the 
employees  in  the  hard  coal  mines  are  children  ? 

Do  you  know  that  the  increase  of  child-labor 
in  the  iron  and  steel  industry  shows  216  per 
cent  ? 

Do  vou  know  that  there  are  about  seventeen 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  children  between  the 
ages  of  ten  and  fifteen  years  employed  in  the 
mines  and  factories  of  the  United  States  ? 

Do  you  know  that  child-labor  is  employed  to 
a  very  much  greater  extent  in  the  North  than 
in  the  South? 

Do    vou    know    tliat    children    are    deformed, 


AN    APPEAL    TO    Till-:    READER.  9 

maimed,  weakened  and  made  diseased  for  life  in 
many  of  the  trades  flourishing  in  every  industrial 
community?  Do  you  hear  the  cry  of  the  chil- 
dren: 

"How  long,"  they  say,  "how  long,  oh  cruel  nation, 

Will    you    stand,    to    move    the    world,    on    a    child's 
heart — 
Stifle  down  with  a  mailed  heel  its  palpitation, 

And  tread  onward  to  your  throne  amid  the  mart? 
Our  blood  splashes  upward,  oh  our  tyrants, 

And  your  purple  shows  your  path ;" 
But  the  child's  sob  curseth  deeper  in  its  silence 

Than  the  strong  man  in  his  wrath. 

Are  you  aware  that  child-lahor  is  one  of  the 
bitterest  and  greatest  tragedies  of  our  commercial 
age? 

Do  you  know  all  that?  If  yes,  what  are  you 
going  to  do  about  it?  If  not — is  it  not  your  sa- 
cred duty  to  investigate  matters  and  to  decide 
vs'hat  to  do  about  it? 

Are  you  not  responsible  for  the  prevailing 
conditions  as  far  as  you  fail  to  improve  them  to 
the  extent  of  your  abilities  and  as  far  as  you 
help  to  perpetuate  them  ? 

The  present  book  is  an  attempt  at  a  sane,  fair 
and  impartial  treatment  of  the  most  important 
social  economic  problems  of  our  age  from  the 
highest  ethical  point  of  view,  from  the  point  of 
view  of  the  true  interests  of  the  entire  human 
race.  We  do  not  attack  personalities  or  classes, 
who  apparently  at  least  are  benefited  by  the  pre- 
vailing abnormal  conditions  of  social-economic 
life  and  strife.  However,  we  analyse  and  con- 
demn social-economic  institutions  that  accord- 
ing to  our  sincere  conviction  liave  outlived  their 
utilitv. 


TO  AMERICAN    TAdPERISM. 

The   fundamental   thought   of  our  book   may 

be  summarised  in  the  following  single  sentence : 

"There  is  no  crime  hut  parasitism." 

To  eliminate  social-economic  parasitism  means 

to  abolish  the  very  root  of  all  social  economic 

evils.    The  poet  says : 

"Truth  is  eternal,  but  her  effluence. 
With  endless  change,  is  fitted  to  the  hour; 
Her  mirror  is  turned  forward  to  reflect 
The  promise  of  the  future,  not  the  past. 
He  who  would  win  the  name  of  truly  great 
Must  understand  his  own  age  and  the  next, 
And  make  the  present  ready  to  fulfil 
Its  prophecy,  and  with  the  future  merge 
Gently  and  peacefully  as  wave  with  wave. 
The  future  works  out  great  men's  purposes : 
The  present  is  enough  for  common  souls, 
Who,  never  looking  forward,  are  indeed 
Mere  clay,  wherein  the  footprints  of  their  age 
Are  petrified  forever :  better  those 
Who  lead  the  blind  old  giant  by  the  hand 
From  out  the  pathless  desert  where  he  gropes, 
And  set  him  onward  in  his  darksome  way. 
I  do  not  fear  to  follow  out  the  truth 
Albeit  along  the  precipice's  edge. 
Let  us  speak  plain  :  there  is  more  force  in  names 
Than  most  men  dream  of;  and  a  lie  may  keep 
Its  throne  a  whole  age  longer,  if  it  skulk 
Behind  the  shield  of  some  fair  seeming  name. 
********** 

For  men  in  earnest  have  no  time  to  waste 
In  patching  fig-leaves  for  the  naked  truth." 


PAUPERISM  AND  POVERTY  IN  THE 
UNITED  STATES. 

We  have  to  distinguish  between  charity  and 
mutual  helpfulness.  Under  charity  we  under- 
stand the  material  assistance  extended  by  the 
parasitic  "higher"  classes  to  the  slum-proletari- 
ans. Charity  is  an  artificial  and  vicious  code,  by 
which  one  class  of  people  regulates  a  part  of  its 
conduct  toward  other  classes,  considered  as  some- 
thing lower  than  men,  because  the  last  happen  to 
be  poor.  St.  Crispinus  used  to  steal  leather  from 
the  rich  in  order  to  make  shoes  for  the  poor. 
The  parasitic  classes  of  our  commercial  civilisa- 
tion appropriate  the  lion's  share  of  the  results  of 
the  labor  of  the  toiling  masses  and  then  sancti- 
moniously contribute  an  infinitesimal  part  of  their 
ill-gotten  wealth  to  the  lowest  dregs  of  the  ex- 
ploited class.  The  ethics  of  such  generosity  is  on 
a  par  with  that  of  a  highway  robber  who,  after 
having  relieved  his  victim  of  his  well-filled  purse, 
returns  a  nickel  for  car-fare  out  of  the  spoil  to  the 
robbed  persons.  The  idle  rich  indulge  in  giving 
alms  because  it  tickles  their  vanity,  because  it 
hypnotises  their  guilty  consciences  and  enhances 
the  consciousness  of  their  economic  power.  Char- 
ity is  indeed  a  very  convenient  institution  for  the 
ruling  plutocratic  minority.  It  helps  to  keep  the 
so-called  lower  classes  in  a  state  of  slavish  hu- 
mility and  canine  dependence  on  the  bitter  crumbs 
falling  occasionally  from  the  overladen  tables  of 
the  "vaHant  possessor  of  the  valuable." 

Besides  this,  methodical  organised  charity  by 
II 


12  AMERICAN    PAUPERISM. 

proxy  saves  the  rich  from  disagreeable  personal 
contact  with  the  unsavory  poor.  Organised  pri- 
vate charity  allows  the  rich  to  treat  professional 
beggars  like  criminals  without  appearing  brutal. 
Organised  private  charity  makes  it  possible  to 
classify  the  poor  people  into  two  categories — one 
labeled  zcorthy,  and  the  other  umvorthy  of  sup- 
port. Charity  this  way  helps  to  keep  the  irregu- 
lar reserve  army  of  unemployed  just  on  the  brink 
of  semi-starvation  and  in  constant  readiness  to 
accept  a  proposed  "job"  on  any  terms,  to  act  as 
strike-breakers  in  case  of  necessity,  and,  mainly, 
to  press  down  the  scale  of  wages  for  labor  to  the 
lowest  possible  level.  These  poor,  namely,  who, 
on  one  hand,  still  possess  some  class  conscious- 
ness, or  who  are,  on  the  other  hand,  too  deeply 
demoralised  to  be  relied  upon  by  the  employers  of 
labor  in  times  of  industrial  disturbances,  are  la- 
beled as  unworthy  of  support. 

Quite  a  different  moral  aspect  is  presented  by 
the  unostentatious  mutual  helpfulness  among  the 
poor.  Here  the  gift  of  a  penny  means  actually 
that  the  giver  has  to  deny  himself  something  of 
the  necessaries  of  life. 

Unfortunately,  there  is  no  way  of  ascertaining 
either  the  number  benefited  by  or  the  amount  ex- 
pended in  mutual  helpfulness  of  that  kind. 

The  New  York  Times  (Nov.  19,  1902)  esti- 
mates that  in  the  State  of  New  York  alone  there 
is  spent  annually  on  private  charity  not  less  than 
$20,000,000  by  more  than  ten  thousand  organised 
private  institutions. 

Public  charity,  so  called,  ought  to  be,  by  right, 
considered  as  belonging  to  the  category  of  mu- 
tual helpfulness.  Indeed  all  charitable  state,  city, 
and  countv  institutions  are  maintained  at  the  ex- 


PAUPERISM    IN   Tllli   UN'ITED  STATICS.  13 

pense  of  the  taxpayers ;  and  the  wealth  out  of 
which  taxes  are,  in  the  last  instance,  paid  is  pro- 
duced by  the  toiling  masses,  and  not  by  the  para- 
sitic classes,  all  outward  appearances  to  the  con- 
trary. And  yet  the  stigma  of  "charity"  remains 
attached  to  these  institutions.  In  the  public  opin- 
ion every  person  applying  for  and  getting  aid 
from  public  charitable  institutions  is  stamped 
a  pauper.  Only  exceptional  distress  compels  the 
respectable  poor  to  apply  for  public  charity.  If 
we  use  data  about  public  charity  as  an  indication 
of  poverty  we  shall  not  run  the  risk  of  exagger- 
ating the  actual  existing  poverty,  but  rather  of 
underestimating  it. 

It  must  be  stated  however  at  the  outset  that 
even  the  data  aijuul  public  charity  in  the  United 
States  are  rather  fragmentary  and  iiicomplete. 

The  following  table  will  show  the  number  of 
applicants  for  charity  in  1891 : 

Per  cent 
Appli-    of  pop- 
Cities.  Population.         cants,  illation. 

New  York  City   1.515,301  2,836  0.18 

Boston    448,417  2,391  0.53 

Baltimore    434,439  2,250  0.51 

New   Haven    81,298  551  0.67 

In  other  words,  of  each  ten  thousand  inhabi- 
tants there  zvere  recognized  panpers,  eighteen  in 
New  York  City,  fifty-three  in  Boston,  fifty-one  in 
Baltimore  and  sixty-seven  in  Nezu  Haven. 

The  eleventh  United  States  Census  puts  the 
number  of  paupers  in  alms-houses  alone  at  73,- 
045.  This  figure  represents  obviously  only  a 
small  fraction  of  the  actual  number  of  paupers. 
Professor  Ely  and  Mr.  Chas.  Kellog,  secretary 
of  the  New  York  charity  organization,  both  esti- 


14  A.NnCfv'ICAX    I'AL'rKKlS.M. 

mate  the  iiuinbcr  of  /"aiipcrs  in  the  United  States 
at  not  less  than  three  millions.  (  Xorth  American 
Review,  April,  1891.)  Professor  Ely  and  Amos 
G.  Warner  both  estimate  that  hundred  millions  of 
dollars  annually  is  a  conservatii'e  figure  of  the 
total  direct  and  indirect  pecuniary  loss  to  the 
country  on  account  of  pauperism.  Professor  Ely 
puts  the  direct  expenditure  of  the  United  States 
on  this  account  at  twenty-five  million  dollars. 
From  this  sum  the  State  of  New  York  alone 
spends  for  charitable  purposes  thirteen  million 
dollars  per  annum. 

In  connection  with  these  figures  the  following 
data  of  the  eleventh  census  will  be  of  interest. 

The  true  valuation  of  the  total  wealth  of  the 
United  States  was  estimated  at  sixty-five  mill- 
iards^ tliifty-seven  millions,  ninety-one  thousand 
and  hundred  ninety-seven  dollars.  The  true  valu- 
ation of  the  total  wealth  of  the  State  of  New 
York  was  estimated  at  eight  milliards,  five  hun- 
dred seventy-six  millions,  seven  hundred  one 
thousand  and  nine  hundred  ninety-one  dollars. 
The  wealth  of  the  State  of  New  York  represents 
therefore  about  one-eighth  of  the  total  national 
wealth.  The  State  of  New  York  is  therefore  by 
far  the  richest  State  of  the  Union,  having  a  true 
per  capita  valuation  of  one  thousand  four  hun- 
dred thirty  dollars  while  the  true  per  capita 
valuation  of  the  United  States  reaches  only  one 
thousand  and  thirty-six  dollars.  The  State  of 
New  York,  representing  more  than  one-eighth  of 
the  entire  wealth  of  the  nation,  carries  about  one- 
eighth  of  the  burden  of  pauperism  of  the  United 
States,  a  burden  that  is  not  nearly  proportionate 
to  its  share  in  the  population  of  the  Union. 

As  we  shall  devote  considerable  attention  later 


paupi:ris>.[  IX  xiii':  unit1':i)  states.         15 

on  to  the  distribution  of  wealth  in  the  United 
States,  we  will  leave  the  just  related  data 
of  the  census  without  further  comment.  We 
will,  however,  point  out  here  that  these  data  add 
a  special  significance  to  the  data  about  pauper- 
ism and  poverty  in  the  State  of  New  York.  In 
1880  there  zvere  66,20^  inmates  in  aUnshouses  in 
the  United  States,  or  one  inmate,  one  recognized 
pauper  to  each  756'  inhabitants.  In  1890  there 
were  (as  we  related  above)  73,045  almshouse 
inmates  or  one  pauper  to  every  857  inhabitants 
(Eleventh  Census,  bulletin  90,  p.  3).  The  aver- 
age age  of  almshouse  paupers  in  1880  was  45.1 
years,  while  it  was  51.03  years  in  1890.  This 
change  was  due  to  the  removal  of  children  pau- 
pers to  special  institutions. 

The  New  York  State  Board  of  Charities  in  its 
tenth  annual  report  (table  on  pp.  99-107)  fur- 
nishes data  respecting  12,614  inmates  of  alms- 
houses. Of  the  total,  422  were  born  in  the  alms- 
houses and  of  others  1650  were  admitted  when 
less  than  ten  years  old.  At  the  time  of  the  ex- 
amination nearly  13  per  cent  were  under  ten 
years  of  age  and  nearly  the  same  proportion  was 
over  seventy.  The  average  time  of  previous  de- 
pendence for  all  inmates  amounted  to  4.88  years. 
This  gave  a  total  of  61,595  years  of  almshouse 
care  for  the  benefit  of  the  persons  examined.  In 
all  the  poor-houses  there  were  found  a  great 
number  of  inmates  whose  ancestors  were  pau- 
pers and  who  also  had  other  relatives  who  were 
paupers. 

The  State  of  New  York  consequently  cared  for 
about  one-sixth  of  the  total  number  of  all 
officiaUy  recognized  paupers  in  the  Union,  or  one 
pauper  to  each  82.1  in  i8qo — that  means  about 


l6  AMKKICAX    PAUPERISM. 

ten  times  the  average  for  the  United  States  in 
general.  Tlic  wealtliiest  State  thus  appears  to 
have  the  greatest  number  of  paupers  in  propor- 
tion to  its  inhabitants.  The  following  is  the  num- 
ber of  State  paupers  admitted  into  the  alms- 
houses of  New  York  each  year  since  October, 

1873: 

Male.       Female.  Total. 

September,    1874 513             50  563 

1875 566     88  654 

1876 514     119  633 

1877 707     165  872 

1878 930     190  1,120 

1879 1,326     261  1,587 

1880 1,023     320  1,343 

1881 1,046     327  1,373 

1882 1,024     368  1,392 

1883 1,033     393  1,426 

1884 1,378     514  1,892 

18S5 1,409     439  1,848 

1886 1,252     354  1,606 

1887 1,247     370  1,617 

1888 1,317     348  1,66s 

1889 1,369     388  1,757 

1890 1,133            307  i,-440 

1891 1,026            339  1.365 

1892 1,095            272  1,367 

1893 1,057            349  1,406 

1894 1,490            484  1.974 

1895 1,669            502  2,171 

1896 1,589            513  2,102 

1897 1,448            539  1.987 

1898 1,300            504  1,804 

1899 1,582            467  2,049 


30,043         8,970  39,013 

(XXXIII  Report  of  the  State  Board  of  Charities  of 
the  State  of  New  York— VI,  p.  972.) 

Mr.  Byron  M.  Child  in  his  paper,  presented  to 
the  New  York  conference  of  charities  and  cor- 

*«s7 


PAUPERISM    IN   Till':   L-XITED  STATES.  1 7 

rections  held  November  20-22,  1900,  at  Albany, 
gives  the  following  brief  review  of  the  growth 
of  organized  charity  in  the  State  of  New  York. 
(XXXIV  Report,  pp.  85-95.) 

Thirty  years  ago  the  State  Board  of  Charities 
reported  that  the  counties  of  the  State  had  ex- 
pended in  1870  "for  support  and  relief"  $1,330,- 
776.64  and  the  cities  $1,265,050.41,  besides  which 
the  state,  cities  and  counties  had  appropriated 
$157,780.51  toward  maintenance  of  twenty-niif& 
hospitals,  the  total  expenditures  of  which  were 
$560,801.77.  These  hospitals  treated  15,713 
beneficiary  or  charity  patients.  In  addition  the 
orphan  asylums  of  the  State  were  maintained  at 
an  expense  of  $2,531,915.88  of  which  $591,570.88 
came  from  public  funds;  10,134  persons  were  in 
these  asylums  at  the  close  of  the  year.  The  State 
supplemented  its  appropriations  in  this  direction 
with  a  further  gift  of  $50,000  for  educational 
purposes.  This  is  the  substance  of  the  statistics 
of  that  year. 

The  institutions  for  the  care  of  destitute  adults 
are  now  of  three  classes :  those  maintained  and 
controlled  wholly  by  the  public;  those  partly 
maintained  by  the  public,  but  controlled  by  pri- 
vate corporations ;  and  those  wholly  maintained 
by  private  funds  and  under  private  control.  In 
1895  there  were  13,658  inmates  in  the  alms- 
houses, exclusive  of  classified  cases,  besides  8,131 
aged  and  friendless  persons  elsewhere  provided 
for;  1,100  disabled  soldiers  and  sailors  and  6,655 
hospital  patients  of  the  destitute  class.  To  these 
should  be  added  the  380  adult  females  in  reforma- 
tories. 

In  that  year  the  inspector  of  charities  reported 
the  total  expenditures  as  over  nineteen  millions 


t8  A^r  erica X  PArpEUTS>r. 

of  dollars  for  all  purposes — of  which  the  State, 
counties  and  municipalities  contributed  nearly 
five  million  dollars — but  these  figures  did  not 
include  the  hospitals  for  insane.  There  were 
sixty-four  homes  for  the  atjed  and  friendless,  and 
they  received  $135,982.15  from  the  public  treas- 
ury, their  total  expenditures  being  $1,292,663.60. 

During  the  same  period  $3,128,842.78  were 
spent  for  the  support  and  care  of  the  inmates  of 
almshouses.  In  these  institutions  there  were 
cared  for  in  1898,  7,119  persons,  of  whom  370 
were  supported  by  public  funds,  and  over  6,336 
by  private  funds.  As  many  of  the  institutions 
failed  to  make  reports,  these  figures  are  not  com- 
plete. Reports  show,  however,  that  at  least  755 
men  and  684  women,  in  addition  to  those  cared 
for  the  preceding  year,  were  received  into  the 
institutions. 

During  the  same  period  1,262  were  discharged 
from  the  rolls  for  various  causes.  At  the  close  of 
that  year  2,648  men  and  3,211  women,  a  total  of 
5,857  inmates,  remained  in  the  institutions,  and 
the  expenditures  were  $1,832,625.82,  so  far  as 
reported. 

For  the  following  year,  ending  September  30, 
1890,  there  were  in  the  homes  for  aged  persons, 
and  in  the  reformatories,  7,015.  During  the  same 
period  82,974  persons  had  received  relief  in  the 
almshouses  of  the  State,  and  6.853  ^'^^'^^  ^^en  in 
other  State  institutions.  The  total  expenditures 
for  all  classes  of  adults  in  institutions  repre- 
sented about  the  same  sum  expended  the  preced- 
ing year,  forming  a  large  portion  of  the  grand 
total  of  $29,447,177.32  expended  in  the  State  for 
charities.    Of  this  grand  total  $8,042,720.53  were 


PAUPERISM    IN  THE   UNITED  STATES.  IQ 

from  public  funds  and  $21,434,456.79  were  dis- 
bursed from  private  treasuries. 

The  statistics  of  1899  show  that  our  institu- 
tions caring  for  adults  and  subject  to  State  su- 
pervision had  in  their  charge  a  very  large  num- 
ber of  persons,  and  that  altogether  were  sup- 
ported by  the  people  of  the  State  a  vast  army  of 
dependents  of  all  kinds,  over  300,000  strong. 

The  year  began  with  32,249  adults  under  care, 
but  to  these  have  to  be  added  the  classified  in- 
mates of  the  State  institutions. 

In  view  of  the  general  facts  just  related  about 
public  chanty  in  the  State  and  City  of  New  York, 
it  will  be  instructive  to  examine  in  detail  some 
official  reports  of  the  New  York  State  Board  of 
Charities  for  recent  years. 

The  report  of  the  Board  of  Charities  of  the 
State  of  New^  York  for  the  year  1897,  for  in- 
stance, contains  the  following  data  of  general 
interest : 

The  real  and  personal  property  of  all  institu- 
tions, societies  and  associations  reporting  to  the 
Board  was  estimated  to  be  worth  $103,384,- 
554.21,  of  this  sum  $77,455,064.20  were  in  real 
estate  and  $29,929,490.01  in  personal  property, 
divided  among  the  various  classes  of  charities  as 
follows : 

State    institutions     $  5,450,953-68 

County    alms-houses    2,993,930.00 

City  and  town  alms-houses    6,842,000.00 

Charity    organization    societies    346,082.01 

Day   nurseries    271,416.46 

Dispensaries    1,613,983.17 

Eleemosynary   educational   institutions    . .  850,569.07 

Emplovm.ent  societies    i7i,2i7-76 

Fresh  air  charities   479,035-96 

General  out-door  relief  societies  2,274,544.49 


20  AMERICAN    PAUrERISM. 

Homes  for  the  aged   17,845,107.17 

Homes  for  the  bhnd   244,400.00 

Homes  for  children  25,581,750.33 

Homes  for  discharged  prisoners   161,997.78 

Homes,  temporary,  for  men  and  boys   .  .  124,340.01 
Homes,  temporary,  for  women  and  chil- 
dren      223,214.45 

Homes,  temporary,  for  women  and  girls.  177,230.00 

Homes  and  hospitals  for  consumptives  .  .  583,000.00 

Homes  and  hospitals  for  convalescents  .  .  527,000.00 

Homes  and  hospitals  for  epileptics 120,000.00 

Homes  and  hospitals  for  incurables 1,611,855.60 

Homes  and  hospitals  for  inebriates   488,307.70 

Homes  and  missions  for  emigrants   2,441,600.00 

Hospitals    29,068,051.55 

Humane  societies    6,600.00 

Legal  aid  societies    19.715-00 

Reformatories  for  children   165,578.13 

Reformatories  for  women  and  girls 1,618,172.24 

Relief  for  sick  poor,  societies  for  335,508.00 

School  for  deaf  1,224,691.65 

Total    $103,384,554-21 

Commenting  upon  this  report  the  New  York 
Morning  Sun's  (August  7,  1898)  remarks  run 
as  follows : 

"It  is  to  be  remembered  that  the  Board's  fig- 
ures do  not  include  the  large  amount  expended 
bv  the  thousand  of  minor  charitable  organiza- 
tions, such  as  the  King's  Daughters,  Ladies'  Aid 
Societies,  Helping  Hand  and  sewing  circles,  nor 
the  vast  and  incalculable  assistance  rendered 
through  purely  personal  benefactions.  Large  as 
these  figures  of  the  report  of  the  Board  appear, 
there  are  various  good  reasons  for  believing  that 
they  are  rather  under  than  over-estimated  of  the 
value  of  property  devoted  to  charitable  uses  in 
this  State.  The  chief  of  these  reasons  is  that 
charitable   societies   do   not   care   to  appear  too 


PAUPERISM    IN   THE  UNITED  STATES.  21 

•wealth}^    especially    when   they    derive    support 
from  donations  of  the  charitable. 

The  receipts  of  the  institutions  for  the  year 
aggregate  $23,100,880.50,  received  from  the  fol- 
lowing sources : 

The   State    $  1,527,231.06 

Counties    2,450,628.04 

Cities     5,628,277.24 

Individuals  for  the  support  of  inmates  ....  1,292,852.65 

Legacies    860,437.27 

Membership    fees    424,189.20 

Entertainments  and  benefits   394,744.23 

Donations  and  voluntary  contributions  ...  2,632,440.14 

Interest  and  dividends    1,118,232.46 

Investments  (Loans,  bonds,  stocks,  etc.)    .  1,184,133.26 

Money   borrowed    1,422,047.80 

All  other  sources   2,356,526.23 

Total    $23,100,880.50 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that  the  aggregate  amount 
of  public  funds  granted  for  the  relief  of  the  poor 
through  these  institutions  was  much  less  than  the 
aggregate  amount  received  from  private  sources, 
the  figures  being  respectively  $9,606,136.34  from 
the  State,  counties  and  cities,  as  compared  with 
$13,494,744..  16  received  through  the  medium  of 
private  benefactions.  The  total  expenditures  for 
the  year  amounted  to  $21,448,362.03,  classified  as 
follows : 

Indebtedness    upon    real    estate    (principal 

and   interest)    $  721,325.29 

Other   indebtedness    773,123.66 

Rent    151,209.12 

Salaries  and  wages   4,147,880.61 

Provisions  and  supplies   4,331,342.72 

Printing  and  stationery   128,214.06 

Clothing    616,421.00 

Fuel  and  light   850,339.65 

Medicine  and  medical   supplies    495,903.16 


2.2  AMERICAN    PAUPERISM. 

Furniture,  beds  and  bedding   328,404.11 

Ordinary    repairs    534,881.31 

Insurance     102,909.40 

Buildings  and  improvements    31263,315.00 

Interest  on  loans    84,855.27 

Investment    1,642,863.00 

Services  of  collections  and  soliciting  funds  27,532.38 
General   out-door   relief  to  the   poor  with 

homes    226,860.68 

Meals  and  lodging  for  the  homeless   28,227.68 

Fresh  air  relief   20,185.29 

All   other   purposes    2,972,468.20 

Total     $21,448,362.03" 

Quite  remarkable  is  the  amount  of  money  spent 
on  salaries  and  wages,  an  amount  almost  equal  to 
the  expenditure  on  provisions  and  supplies.  The 
four  millions  of  dollars  spent  on  salaries  and 
wages  show  that  the  officials  of  charitable  insti- 
tutions absorb  for  their  services  about  one-fifth 
of  all  the  entire  sum  of  expenditure  on  charities ; 
in  other  words,  that  it  costs  19  cents  in  salaries 
and  wages  to  spend  each  dollar  of  money. 

The  munhcr  of  inmates  in  the  institutions  sub- 
ject to  the  snperz'ision  of  the  Board  zvas,  in  Octo- 
ber, iSp/,  /  4,664. 

The  New  York  Sun  adds  to  these  figures  the 
following  comments :  "Large  as  these  figures 
are,  they  do  not  of  course  begin  to  approach  the 
statistics  showing  the  total  number  of  inmates 
supported  some  part  of  the  year,  for  there  is  a 
continual  movement  of  population  in  most  of  the 
institutions,  especially  in  the  hospitals,  and  the 
beneficiaries  of  the  year  number  of  course  many 
more  than  those  to  be  found  in  the  census  of  any 
given  date.  The  tables  of  the  State  Board  show 
that  the  number  of  inmates  received  and  cared 
for  in  the  above  mentioned  classes  of  institutions 
during  the  past  fiscal  year  aggregates  269,147. 


PAUPERISM    IX   THE  UNITED  STATES.  23 

"But  these  were  by  no  means  all  that  received 
charitable  assistance,  the  tables  showing  that  in 
the  dispensaries  of  the  State,  most  of  them  being 
in  New  York  City,  1,523,699  persons  were 
treated  practically  free  of  charge,  the  number  of 
prescriptions  dispensed  being  2,257,075.  Fur- 
ther than  this,  general  out-door  relief  was  given 
by, superintendents  and  overseers  of  the  poor  re- 
lief societies,  missions,  and  other  charities  to 
758,609  persons,  making  the  number  relieved  by 
institutions  (including  hospitals  and  dispensa- 
ries), societies,  associations  and  public  oiHcials 
aggregate  2,551,455. 

"It  is  not  to  be  supposed  by  any  means  that 
these  figures  correctly  represent  the  actual  num- 
ber of  individuals  assisted  during  the  year,  for 
there  must  have  been  an  unavoidable  amount  of 
duplication  in  the  figures  given,  which  cannot 
even  be  estimated.  Notwithstanding  this,  it  must 
be  clearly  apparent  that  uncommonly  large  num- 
bers of  people  of  this  State  are  more  or  less  de- 
pendent upon  charitable  relief,  and  those  well  in- 
formed upon  the  subject  are  inclined  to  the  be- 
lief that  the  unregistered  and  unreported  charity 
which  is  bestowed  by  private  benevolence  will 
more  than  compensate  for  any  duplications  that 
may  exist  in  the  official  figures." 

Such  is  the  opinion  of  a  great  capitalistic  paper 
of  New  York  City.  The  report  for  1897,  just 
examined,  is  typical  of  all  the  rest  of  the  reports 
of  the  Board  of  Charities  for  the  following  years, 
as  we  will  see  from  the  following  data.  The  Sun 
then  proceeds : 

"The  receipts  of  the  State  institutions  and  sev- 
eral institutions  under  State  control  and  private 
management  for  the  year  1899  reached  a  total  of 


24  a:mf.hicax  iwuperism. 

$1,747,799.54.  The  expenditures  of  these  insti- 
tutions for  tlie  same  year  were  total  $730,461.37. 
The  number  of  tramps  assisted  was  19,073.  The 
number  of  persons  temporarily  assisted  was  118.- 
560.  In  almshouses  were  16,160.  The  total 
number  of  supported  and  relieved  zvas  1^4,720. 

"The  number  of  dependents  under  institutional 
care  in  the  State  of  New  York,  including-  the  in- 
sane, on  October  i,  1890,  was  86,893.  The  nu'm- 
ber  of  beneficiaries  in  charitable  institutions,  re- 
ceiving public  mofieys  in  the  State  of  New  York 
and  subject  to  visitation  by  the  Board  of  Chari- 
ties and  Corrections,  were  in  1901,  total,  61,997, 
among  them  27,262  (or  about  44  per  cent)  being 
children." 

The  receipts  of  fourteen  of  the  State  charit- 
able institutions  for  the  fiscal  year  ending  Sep- 
tember, 1 90 1,  including  balance  on  hand  at  the 
beginning  of  the  year  ($91,506.71)  amounted  to 
$1,401,520.37.  Their  expenditures  aggregated  to 
$1,335,211.95,  $919,894.73  being  for  mainte- 
nance, $384,370.96  for  improvements.  (Rept., 
p.  29.)  The  total  number  of  beneficiaries  was 
7,756,  or  about  $118.07  per  each  inmate  for 
maintenance  alone. 

The  schools  and  institutions  under  private 
management,  but  mainly  supported  by  the  State 
appropriations,  had  the  following  receipts  for  the 
fiscal  year  ending  September,  1901 : 

Cash  on  hand   $  43.907-52 

From  public  sources   685,623.92 

From  private  sources   210,784.78 

Total  receipts  were   940,316.22 

Their  expenditures  aggregated   883,483.32 

The  appropriations  for  maintenance  and  for 
extraordinary  expenses  by  the  legislature  of  1901 


PAUPERISM    IX   THE   UNITED  STATES.  25 

to  the  various  State  institutions  subject  to  the 
Board  of  \'isitation  and  Inspection  summed  up 
to  $1,175,900.59  for  maintenance  and  $598,- 
851.87  for  extraordinary  expenses. 

The  rate  of  payment  to  charitable  institutions 
by  the  City  of  New  York,  unless  otherwise  spe- 
cially provided,  are  fixed  for  various  classes  of 
inmates  as  follows : 

Infants  under  two  years,  and  in  hospitals  be- 
tween ages  of  two  and  five,  38  cents  per  day. 

Dependent  children,  two  to  sixteen  years,  $2 
per  week. 

Delinquent  children  $110  per  annum. 

Adult  inmates  of  reformatories,  committed  by 
court,  $110  per  annum. 

Inmates  of  homes  for  fallen  and  friendless 
women,  $110  per  annum. 

Maternity  cases,  $18  per  case. 

Homeless  mothers  and  nursing  infants,  $12 
per  month.  , 

To  hospitals  for  medical  treatment,  80  cents 
per  day. 

Total  for  charitable  institutions,  $2,776,714.12. 
(New  York  City  Budget.)  The  expenditures  of 
the  State  institutions  for  the  fiscal  year  ended 
September,  1901,  were  itemized  as  follows: 

Total  average  expenditures  for  maintenance 

for  fourteen  institutions   ._.  .$1,080,967.34 

Total  average  of  inmates   for  fourteen  in- 
stitutions      429 

Average  annual  cost  of  support  276.51 

Average  w^eekly  cost  of  support  5-88 

Expended  for  salaries  of  officers,  wages  and 

labor 452,432.28 

Average    annual    cost    per    capita    expendi- 
ture for  salaries,  management,  etc 127.67 

—  Rep.,  p.  2,7. 


26  AMF.RICAX    PAUPERISM. 

The  report  of  the  State  Board  of  Charities  for 
1902  contains  among  others  the  following  in- 
structive data. 

There  were  persons  remaining  in  the  institu- 
tions receiving  public  money,  subject  to  the 
visitation  and  inspection  of  the  State  Board  of 
Charities,  at  the  close  of  the  fiscal  years  from 
1898  to  1902  inclusive : 

In  1898  62,215 

In  1899  61,570 

In  1900  60,637 

In  1901  61,461 

In  1902  60,804 

Fourteen  of  the  State  charitable  institutions 
are  subject  to  the  visitation  and  inspection  of  the 
Board. 

The  receipts  of  these  institutions  for  the  fiscal 
year  ending  September  30,  1902,  including  bal- 
ance on  hand  at  the  beginning  of  the  year  ($66,- 
577.22),  amounted  to  $1,374,886.21.  Their  ex- 
penditures aggregated  $1,265,775.01. 

Private  institutions  receiving  State  appropria- 
tions had  total  receipts  $1,060,497.63.  Their  ex- 
penditure aggregated  $91 7-259-63  and  the  total 
number  of  their  beneficiaries  was  3,324,  or  about 
$275  for  each  beneficiary.     (Rep.,  p.  32,  1902.) 

If  the  poor  receiving  so-called  indoor  relief 
in  various  public  charities  are  hopeless,  officially 
recognized  paupers;  the  poor  receiving  outdoor 
relief  have  to  be  classified  as  an  intermediary 
class  between  the  paupers  and  respectable  poor. 
The  poor  receiving  out-door  relief,  especially 
those  who  receive  it  only  temporarily,  under  the 
stress  of  some  exceptional  calamity,  are  strug- 
gling violently  against  pauperism  and  make  all 
possible  efforts  to'  keep  up  at  least  the  appearance 
of  a  home  of  their  own. 


PAUi'KKlSM    JN   Till-:   UxMTED  STATES.  2/ 

We  will  take  here  the  data  of  the  report  of  the 
Board  of  Charities  of  the  State  of  New  York  for 
the  year  1902. 

According  to  the  census  of  1900  the  popula- 
tion of  the  State  of  New  York  was  4,919,190, 
while  the  population  of  the  City  of  New  York 
was  3,437,202.     (Rep.,  p.  ^-j.) 

The  number  of  poor  persons  receiving  tempo- 
rary relief  was  in  the  State  of  New  York  51,- 
873,  while  the  number  of  poor  persons  receiving 
temporary  relief  in  the  City  of  New  York  was 
1,038.  In  other  words,  0.03  per  cent  of  the  en- 
tire population  of  New  York  City  and  one  of 
each  95  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  State  of  New 
York  received  out-door  relief  in  1900.     (Ibidem.) 

In  1901  the  number  of  poor  persons  receiving 
temporary  relief  in  the  City  of  New  York  was 
1,161,  while  in  the  State  it  was  48,365. 

In  1902  the  number  of  poor  persons  receiving 
temporary  relief  in  the  City  of  Nev/  York  is  not 
given,  while  for  the  State  of  New  York  the  fig- 
ure of  31,441  is  given. 

The  per  capita  expenditure  for  temporarily  re- 
lieved in  the  City  of  New  York  in  1900  reached 
$38.75,  in  1901  $37.24. 

Following  are  data  about  out-door  relief  in  five 
leading  States  of  the  Union  in  1893,  1892,  1891 
and  1889,  respectively: 

Number  Popu- 

Year.  relieved.  Expense.  lation. 

New  York  State   ..1892  I3i,439  $  681,934.99  5-497,853 

Pennsylvania    1892    25,027  474,347.78  5,258,014 

Michigan     1889    39,115  .120,829.13  2,093,889 

Ohio   1891     67,927  442,282.51  3,672,316 

Wisconsin     1892      4,492  148,671.45  1,686,880 

California   1893       304,790.00  1.208,136 

Total    $2472,875.86  19,917,082 


28  AMERICAN    PAUPERISM. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  two  richest 
States  in  the  Union,  having  approximately  the 
same  population,  occupy  the  first  two  places  in 
the  table  in  resi)cct  to  expenses  on  out-door  relief. 

Each  one  of  4^.6  inliahitants  of  the  State  of 
New  York  received  outdoor  relief  in  i8g2.  In 
the  same  year  each  one  of  210  inhabitants  of  the 
State  of  Pennsylvania  received  outdoor  relief. 
Pauperism  was  consequently  about  4.6  stronger  in 
New  York  than  in  Pennsylvania  in  i8g2. 

About  outdoor  relief  Seth  Low  said  in  his  re- 
port to  the  national  conference  of  charities  as 
follows  : 

"Outdoor  door  relief,  so-called,  began  in 
Brooklyn  in  185 1 -1852.  For  the  year  ending 
July  31,  1852,  the  number  of  people  helped  was 
6,754,  at  a  cost  of  $7,139.99.  With  some  varia- 
tions this  had  grown  in  1864  to  20,743  persons 
helped  at  a  cost  of  $25,921.47.  In  1865  the  gen- 
eral demoralization  grew  worse  uninterruptedly 
as  a  result  of  the  war.  In  1865,  while  only  1,500 
more  people  were  helped  than  in  1864,  it  cost  the 
county  $72,708.97  against  $25,921  in  1864,  an  in- 
crease of  $46,000  in  a  single  year.  In  1877  help 
was  given  to  64,350  persons  or  nearly  one-tenth 
of  the  population  at  an  average  cost  of  $114,- 
943.72.  The  total  outlay  for  this  period  of  six 
years  by  King's  County  is  estimated  in  round 
numbers  to  have  been,  for  outdoor  relief,  $689,- 
662.35.  To  such  an  item  at  last  had  grown  the 
kindly  and  apparently  harmless  thing.  The 
population  of  King's  County  is  estimated  in 
round  numbers  to  have  been  in  1852,  150,000;  in 
1864,  320,000;  in  1877.  550,000.  In  1875  the 
Commissioners  of  Charity  employed  paid  visitors 
to  investigate  the  cases  of  applicants  for  relief, 


PAUPERISM    IN    THE   UNITED  STATES.  29 

and  it  cost  sixty  dollars  to  distribute  every  dol- 
lar's worth  of  food  and  fuel.  This  was  so  mon- 
strous that  public  clamor  compelled  a  change. 
In  1876  the  visiting  system  was  abandoned,  and 
all  the  applicants  were  compelled  to  take  an  oath 
that  they  were  paupers.  As  may  be  imagined,  the 
result  was  horrible.  In  1878  the  outdoor  relief 
appropriations  were  stopped." 

This  seems  to  us  a  very  curious  page  in  the 
history  of  public  charity  in  the  United  States. 

As  an  indication  of  extreme  poverty  next  to 
indoor  and  outdoor  public  charity  the  data  on 
medical  charity  deserves  our  attention.  The  fol- 
lowing table  contains  interesting  figures  as  to  the 
extent  of  medical  charity  in  ten  representative 
cities  of  the  United  States,  according  to  Amos 
Warner : 

Population 
(census 

City.                   1890).  Fiscal  year 

Brooklyn    806,343  1889-189C 

St.    Louis    451,770  1890 

Boston   448,477  1891 

Baltimore   434,439  1890-1891 

Cincinnati     . . .    296,908  1891 

Buffalo     255,664  1890 

Minneapolis    . .    164,783  1890 

St.    Paul    133,156  1891 

Indianapolis     .    105,436  1890-1891 

Washington    . .    230,392  

Total  Z,Z'2.T,Z22,  $1,034,576.50    0.31693 

Dr.  Savage  estimates  that  in  the  City  of  New 
York  there  are  between  300,000  and  s'50,000  pa- 
tients treated  free  of  charge  annually  in  the  va- 
rious dispensaries,  or  one  in  each  four  of  the 
entire  tenement  population  or  one  in  each  11.45 
of  the  entire  population  of  the  City  of  New  York. 


Per 

r.     Amount. 

capita. 

)    $196,115.61 

0.2432 

140,77343 

0.31 16 

188,177.88 

0.4195 

111,790.00 

0.2593 

110,160.92 

0.3710 

67,650.00 

0.2646 

17,842.00 

0.1083 

27,269.02 

0.2074 

29,170.00 

0.2767 

145,625.00 

0.6320 

30  AMRRICAX    ^AUPRRIS^r. 

A  writer  in  the  Evening  Post  puts  the  estimate 
at  628,286,  from  which  he  deckicts  178,057 
duplications,  leaving  a  net  number  of  452,529  dis- 
tinct individuals  receiving  dispensary  aid  during 
the  year.  According  to  this  estimate  one  of  each 
/.^Q  inlwbitoifs  of  Nezv  York  City  reccii'es  free 
medical  treatiiteiit. 

According  to  the  same  authority  the  charity 
organization  investigated  1,500  cases  selected  out 
of  35,000  applicants.  The  answer  was  that  about 
one-fourth  were  able  to  pay,  but  were  paupers  in 
spirit,  another  fourth  had  given  wrong  addresses 
(probably  to  avoid  public  notoriety),  and  the 
remaining  half  were  recommended  as  worthy  of 
medical  treatment  by  reason  of  poverty.  For  an- 
other dispensary  the  same  society  made  an  in- 
vestigation of  212  cases  and  returned  answer  that 
55  were  able  to  pay,  50  were  not  found  at  the 
addresses  given,  18  information  not  conclusive, 
and  31  unable  to  pay.  These  referred  cases  were 
questionable  out  of  30,000  patients.  (See  Amos 
G.  Warner's  book  on  Charities.) 

In  European  countries  extreme  poverty  leads 
to  professional  begging.  Professional  beggars 
are  recognized  as  a  class  by  themselves.  No  pri- 
vate home,  street  or  church  is  closed  to  them. 
Public  opinion  considers  it  as  quite  proper  for 
very  poor  people  to  make  their  livelihood  by 
begging.  Private  charity  prevails  over  public 
charity.  Even  if  there  is  a  law  prohibiting  beg- 
ging it  remains  mostly  as  a  dead  letter. 

In  the  United  States  public  charity  institu- 
tions are  supposed  to  take  care  of  all  "worthy" 
poor  and  the  "unworthy"  poor  are  supposed  to 
get  along  as  well  as  they  can  without  any  aid 
W'hatever.    Begging  is  considered  as  a  crime. 


PAUPERISM    IX   THE   UXITED  STATES.  3I 

And  yet  there  arc  professional  beggars  in  the 
United  States,  just  as  there  are  professional 
tramps  and  criminals. 

The  following  incidents  and  descriptions, 
taken  from  the  New  York  Sun,  will  give  us 
an  idea  what  kind  of  a  class  American  profes- 
sional beggars  are  and  what  methods  they  em- 
ploy in  order  to  attain  their  purpose  in  New  York 
City : 

"Detectives  Hayes  and  Flynn  of  the  Jefferson 
Market  police  court  squad  arrested  two  one- 
legged  men  beggars  who  were  soliciting  alms  on 
Sixth  avenue  between  15th  and  i6th  streets.  One 
of  them,  who  gave  the  name  of  William  Smith, 
was  recognized  as  a  professional  beggar,  whose 
real  name  was  Siebel.  The  other  said  that  his 
name  was  George  Allen.  Both  were  young  and 
well  dressed  and  to  all  appearances  perfectly  able 
to  work  in  spite  of  this  lack  of  a  limb  apiece. 
Both  said  they  lived  at  12  Monroe  street.  In  the 
last  fortnight  the  same  detectives  have  arrested 
three  other  beggars  who  gave  the  same  address, 
and  this  fact  led  them  to  the  suggestion  to  in- 
vestigate, with  the  result  that  they  have  discov- 
ered what  they  have  long  expected — that  there 
exists  in  this  city  a  syndicate  of  professional 
beggars  which  has  its  headquarters  at  the  Mon- 
roe street  house.  A  man  named  Burns,  who  lives 
in  Brooklyn,  is  at  the  head  of  the  syndicate.  He 
employs  constantly  ten  to  fifteen  men,  cripples 
preferred,  whom  he  stations  along  the  great 
thoroughfares  of  New  York.  Five  or  six  are 
constantly  at  work  in  the  Sixth  avenue  shopping 
district.  The  men  are  young,  as  a  rule,  and  are 
scrupulously  clean  and  neat.  No  exhibition  of 
sickening  deformities  is  permitted  by  the  boss 


32  A^[ERICAX    PAUPERISM. 

and  wounds  are  discouraged.  All  the  men  hand 
over  a  percentage  of  their  proceeds  to  Burns.  He 
on  his  part  guarantees  to  care  for  them  when  they 
are  sick,  to  free  them  when  arrested,  to  provide 
them  with  a  lodging  and  to  direct  their  work.  A 
special  superintendent,  or  looker-out,  not  a  crip- 
ple, is  employed  for  the  benefit  of  the  shopping 
district  squad.  His  duty  consists  in  keeping  an 
eye  on  the  policemen  and  warning  the  beggars 
when  a  blue-coat  is  approaching.  When  the 
day's  "work"  is  done  the  beggars  enjoy  life  as 
much  as  any  man,  as  is  plain  from  an  experience 
which  Detective  Hayes  had  in  the  last  opera 
season.  He  happened  to  be  standing  near  the 
opera  house  when  a  well  appointed  carriage  drove 
up,  the  door  was  thrown  open  and  out  stepped 
Siebel,  the  professional,  attired  in  immaculate 
evening  dress.  An  artificial  leg  made  it  impossi- 
ble to  discover  that  he  was  a  cripple.  He  was  ac- 
companied by  a  good-looking  and  stylishly 
dressed  girl,  whom  he  escorted  into  the  building 
after  telling-  the  coachman  to  wait  for  them  after 
the  performance.  Hayes  said  that  he  stood  close 
to  the  man,  and  he  knew  him  so  well  that  a  mis- 
take was  impossible. 

Siebel  is  only  21  years  old.  He  has  been  a 
handsome  man,  but  just  now  his  appearance  is 
somewhat  spoiled  by  a  recent  attack  of  typhoid 
fever.  He  always  tells  the  policemen  and  court 
clerks  that  he  is  a  clerk  by  profession,  but  he  has 
been  subsisting  on  alms  for  the  last  three  years 
at  least. 

Both  prisoners  pleaded  guilty  to  begging  when 
arraigned  in  court.  Magistrate  Cornell  sent 
Siebel  to  the  workhouse  for  two  months.  Allen, 
who  is  not  so  well  known  to  the  police,  was  sent 


PAUPERISM   IX   THE  UNITi:))  SPATES.  33 

there  for  one  month. ''  (New  York  Morning 
Sun,  June  22,  1879.) 

A  beggars'  trust  is  described  as  follows  by  the 
New  York  Herald: 

"The  oyster  knife,  the  symbol  of  the  proverbial 
hatchet  in  the  realm  of  'panhandling,'  is  buried. 
Such  was  the  information  which  was  bruited 
about  in  the  slums  district,  from  the  Burnt  Rag, 
in  Cherry  Street,  to  Hell  Kitchen,  at  39th  street 
and  loth  avenue.  The  panhandler  is  the  profes- 
sional fake  beggar,  who  is  seen  on  nearly  every 
croner  in  the  city.  There  are  many  bands  of 
'panhandlers'  at  work  in  the  metropolis,  all  the 
way  from  Harlem  to  the  Battery,  but  there  are 
six  rings  which  are  particularly  powerful.  Of 
these  Trixy's  band,  headquarters  in  Cherry 
street,  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Burnt  Rag,  a  tene- 
ment house  filled  with  'panhandlers'  and  unfor- 
tunate women,  is  the  most  wide-awake  of  the 
lower  quarter.  Further  up  we  enter  the  domin- 
ions of  Big  iMeck's  gang,  whose  headquarters  are 
in  James  street,  near  Chatham  Square.  On  the 
way  thither  we  pass  the  'Scratcher's  Roost,'  at 
Oak  and  James,  where  the  most  remarkable 
epistles  to  the  millionaires  and  others  are  written, 
and  also  'Blind  i\Ian's  Alley,'  which  is  the  abode 
of  scores  of  pencil  venders,  who  are  distributed 
about  the  city  every  morning,  dressed  in  rags,  and 
who  pathetically  hold  out  a  little  bunch  of  penny 
pencils  as  a  subterfuge  for  begging. 

"  'Big  Meck's'  band  is  the  most  wide  reaching 
in  its  influence,  and  comprises  no  less  than  forty 
}-oung  toughs  who  are  compelled  to  pay  tribute 
to  their  chief,  or  get  thrown  into  the  cold  with  a 
beating  whenever  they  'go  broke,'  or  to  the  Is- 
land without  help  or  legal  advice  and   service 


34  AMERICAN    PAUPFJUS^r. 

when  in  trouble,  or  arrested  on  mere  suspicion. 
'Big  jMeck'  superintends  the  gang,  and  if  a  man 
is  sent  a  hundred  miles  to  cover  a  certain  terri- 
tory he  goes  without  question,  and  does  his  duty 
to  his  commander. 

"If  Big  Tvleck  tells  him  that  his  make  up  as  a 
'flash'  or  blister  victim  just  discharged  from  the 
hospital  is  no  good  he  becomes  a  'mocker,' 
dressing  up  in  castoff  army  or  navy  clothes,  pur- 
chased in  some  'goose  alley'  ofif  West  Broadway, 
and  does  the  plaintive  abandoned  soldier  act, 
prattling  glibly  of  his  charge  up  San  Juan  hill 
with  'our  Teddy'  at  the  front,  or  how  he  helped 
man  the  big  gun  on  the  Iowa  when  fighting  Bob 
made  Spanish  the  most  popular  language  in 
Hades. 

To  the  East  of  the  lower  city  are  several  bands 
known  as  'goose  gangs,'  in  other  words,  cast- 
away Hebrew  toughs,  who  have  rebelled  against 
personal  and  rabbinical  control,  and  Dutch  bands, 
who  are  German  toughs  preying  upon  their  own 
people.  These  with  the  Guinny  gangs,  of  the 
Mulberry  district,  are  not  on  the  same  level  with 
the  superior  toughs  ruled  over  by  such  gutter 
czars  as  'Blackey,'  ruler  of  the  Flatiron  gang,  in 
Forsyth  street,  or  'Big  Meek'  of  Chatham  Square, 
'Trixy'  of  the  'Burned  Rag,'  and  'Omaha  Tom' 
of  the  'Dock  gang'  in  West  street. 

"These  have  long  regarded  one  another  with 
something  of  awe,  rivals  in  a  way,  and  now,  for 
the  first  time,  they  have  come  together  in  con- 
ference and  settled  some  dififerences  of  territorial 
rights  whereby  the  smaller  bands  can  be  frozen 
out,  or,  rather,  beaten  out  of  competition  en- 
tirely. 

"Whereas    most    of    these    'panhandlers'    are 


PAUPERISM   IN   THE   UNITED  SiAiKS.  35 

armed  day  and  night.  The  favorite  weapon  is 
one  that  shields  them  from  the  suppressive  meas- 
ures of  the  pohce — a  common  oyster-knife,  made 
of  the  steel  of  an  old  file.  This  is  nothing  more 
than  a  dagger,  often  very  sharp. 

"There  is  then  a  'panhandler  trust.' 

"The  leader  of  each  band  keeps  in  touch  with 
the  political  leader  of  the  ward,  being  a  very 
valuable  factor  about  a  week  before  election. 

"This  was  the  observation  of  one  of  the  'pan- 
handler chiefs'  to  the  Herald's  representative  at 
parting  in  Stratton  street:  'Luk  at  dose  greasy 
whiskered  geese/  he  said,  contemptuously,  point- 
ing up  to  the  three  floors  of  sweat  shops  one 
above  another,  out  of  whose  w'indows  came  the 
sounds  of  whirring  machines,  and  through  them 
could  be  seen  bearded  slaves  of  toil,  wath  the  lit- 
tle round  butterdish  caps  over  grey  hairs,  bent 
low  over  their  work.  'Luk  at  'em.  Dey  works  like 
dat  for  eighteen  hours  a  day.  I  sees  'em  as  de 
sun  jus'  comes  up  over  de  house  tops,  when  I  am 
turning  in  after  a  night's  work  wnd  de  gang ;  an'  I 
sees  'em  shut  up  at  night  because  of  the  more 
light,  wid  pants  at  $1.20  a  dozen  fer  making,  dey 
turns  out  fifteen  pair.  Wid  no  more  work  in  a 
month  den  dey  do  in  a  minute,  I  turns  me  out  a 
clean  fifty,  I  do.  Well,  dat's  wot  yer  gets  fer 
having  brains,  dat  is,  see  ?'  " 

How  characteristic  appears  to  us  this  attitude 
of  mind  of  the  parasite  on  the  lowest  stage 
of  social  life  of  parasitism  in  general.  The  so- 
cial parasite  of  the  upper  ten  thousand  also  de- 
spises all  those  wdio  toil,  and  imagines  himself 
to  be  of  superior  intellectual  attainments. 

So  far  we  have  spoken  about  paupers  receiv- 
ing in-  and  outdoor  relief  and  professional  beg- 


36  AMERICAN    PAUPERISM. 

gars,  a  class  of  people  hardened  and  demoralized 
by  want,  a  class  of  people  that  either  never  had 
or  have  lost  self  esteem  and  self  reliance,  a  class 
of  people  who  never  did  struggle  against  poverty 
or  gave  up  the  struggle  in  despair.  This  class 
represents  the  lowest  state  of  the  proletariat,  as 
a  German  would  call  it,  "Das  Lumpen  proleta- 
riat," or  in  literal  translation  the  Ragged  prole- 
tariat. 

The  "Ragged  proletariat,"  however,  represents 
only  a  small  fraction  of  the  poor  class. 

Whilst  many  will  rather  die  than  enter  an 
almshouse,  many  others  suffer  abject  want,  dire 
distress,  without  actually  being  penniless,  and  the 
great  bulk  of  the  residuum  of  the  wage  workers 
just  contrive  to  drag  out  a  more  or  less  cheerless 
existence  by  means  of  intense  and  bitter  drug- 
gery. 

Mr.  Frederick  Harrison  stated  a  few  years  ago 
the  following: 

"Ninety  per  cent  of  the  actual  producers  of 
wealth  have  no  home  that  they  can  call  their  own 
beyond  the  end  of  a  week,  have  no  bit  of  soil, 
or  so  much  as  a  room  that  belongs  to  them ;  have 
nothing  of  value  of  any  kind  except  as  much  as 
will  go  in  a  cart ;  have  the  precarious  chance  of 
weekly  wages  which  barely  suffice  to  keep  them 
in  health ;  are  housed  for  the  most  part  in  places 
that  no  man  thinks  fit  for  his  horse ;  are  separated 
by  so  narrow  a  margin  from  destruction  that  a 
month  of  bad  trade,  sickness  or  unexpected  loss 
brings  them  face  to  face  with  hunger  and  pau- 
perism." (Report  of  the  Industrial  Rcnumera- 
tion  Conference,  1886.  p.  429.)  This  is  true  to 
a  great  extent  in  relation  to  the  United  States. 

The  proletariat  of  the  slums  of  Baltimore,  Chi- 


PAUPERISM   IN   THE  UNITED  STATES.  2)7 

cago,  New  York  and  Philadelphia  is  treated  more 
or  less  extensively  by  the  VII  Special  Report  of 
the  Commissioners  of  Labor,  1894. 

We  will  make  here  a  few  extracts  from  this 
report. 

The  slum  districts  of  sixteen  principal  cities  of 
the  United  States,  with  a  total  population  of  8,- 
037,458,  comprehends  at  least  10  per  cent. 

The  population  of  the  slums  of  Baltimore,  Chi- 
cago, New  York  and  Philadelphia,  as  shown  by 
the  Eleventh  Census,  June  i,  1890,  and  by  the 
Census  of  the  Department  of  Labor,  which  rep- 
resents the  condition  April  i,  1893,  is  as  fol- 
lows : 

Eleventh    April  ist. 
census.  1893. 

Baltimore     16,878  18,048 

Chicago    17,637  19,748 

New  York    27,462  28,996 

Philadelphia  I5,409  17,060 

Total    77,386  83,852 

The  districts  selected  for  canvassing  by  no 
means  contained  all  the  slum  population  of  the 
cities  in  the  investigation.  According  to  the  best 
estimates,  the  total  slum  population  of  Baltimore 
is  about  25,000,  of  Chicago  162,000,  of  New  York 
City  360,000,  of  Philadelphia  35,000.  The  slums 
of  the  city  are  in  the  dirty  back  streets,  especially 
such  streets  as  are  inhabited  by  a  squalid  and 
criminal  population,  and  they  are  low  and  dan- 
gerous neighborhoods.  In  these,  as  in  any  dis- 
trict, are  to  be  found  people  of  the  higher  re- 
spectability, people  of  means,  living  in  good 
houses,  but  they  form  an  exception.  They  have, 
however,  been  counted  as  inhabitants  of  the  slum 
district  by  the  report. 


38  AMERICAN    PAUPERISM. 

The  above  named  cities  were  selected  because 
they  represent  great  types  of  American  cities. 

In  the  whole  city  of  Baltimore  the  illiterates 
constitute  9.17  per  cent  of  the  native  born  popu- 
lation and  12.40  per  cent  of  the  foreign  born,  the 
percentage  for  both  being  9.79  per  cent.  In  the 
slum  district  of  that  city  8.13  per  cent  of  the 
native  born  and  30.62  per  cent  of  the  foreign 
born  are  illiterate,  while  tlie  percentage  for  both 
was  19.6  per  cent.  In  the  city  of  Chicago  at 
large  the  illiterates  constitute  0.81  per  cent  of  the 
native  born  population  and  8.31  per  cent  of  the 
foreign  born,  the  percentage  of  both  being  4.63. 
But  in  the  slum  districts  canvassed  5.64  per  cent 
of  the  native  born  persons  are  illiterate  and  33.86 
per  cent  of  the  foreign  born,  the  percentage  for 
both  being  25.37. 

In  New  York  the  percentage  of  illiterates  is 
1. 16  of  the  entire  population  and  14.06  of 
the  foreign  born,  the  percentage  for  both  being 
7.69,  while  for  the  slum  population  the  percentage 
of  native  born  who  were  illiterate  was  7.20  and  of 
the  foreign  born  57.69,  the  percentage  for  both 
being  46.65. 

Philadelphia  shows  nearly  as  large  a  propor- 
tion of  illiterates  in  the  slum  district  as  New  York 
City,  the  figures  for  the  whole  population  show- 
ing that  2.18  per  cent  of  all  native  born  persons 
are  illiterate  and  11.29  P*^'"  cent  of  foreign  born, 
the  united  percentage  being  4.97.  In  the  slum 
district  of  Philadelphia,  however,  8.44  per  cent 
of  the  native  born  persons  and  46.61  per  cent  of 
the  foreign  born  are  illiterate,  the  percentage  of 
the  two  classes  being  37.07. 

The  occupation  of  the  residents  of  the  slum 


PAUPERISM   IX   THE  UNITED  STATES.  39 

districts  in  the  four  cities  named  are  as  varied, 
probably,  as  in  the  cities  at  large. 

According  to  the  Eleventh  Census,  the  num- 
ber of  persons  to  a  dwelling  in  Baltimore  was 
6.02,  in  Chicago  8.60,  in  New  York  18.52,  in 
Philadelphia  5.60.  The  averages  in  the  slum  dis- 
tricts are  about  the  same  for  Baltimore  and 
Philadelphia,  there  being  in  the  former  city  7.71 
persons  to  a  dwelling,  and  in  Philadelphia  7.34 
persons,  but  the  slum  population  averages  15.51 
persons  to  each  dzvelling,  and  in  Neiv  York  5<5.7p 
persons.  The  table  about  the  average  size  of 
families  show  for  Baltimore  5.01,  for  Chicago 
4.94,  for  New  York  4.84,  and  Philadelphia  5.10, 
the  slum  families  being  slightly  larger  than  the 
size  of  families  in  other  parts  of  the  cities  of 
Chicago,  New  York  and  Philadelphia. 

The  following  tables  show  the  percentage  of 
persons  in  the  slums  under  different  industrial 
groups : 

Of  per- 
sons 
under 
each 
Males.    Females,  group, 
per  per  per 

Baltimore.  cent.         cent.       cent. 

Agricultural,  the  fisheries  and 

mining    82.8  17.I  0.4 

Professional    84.82        15.  0.62 

Domestic    and    personal    ser- 
vices      82.92        17.08        11.26 

Trade  and  transportation  ....  90.11  9.81        10.26 

Manufactures  and  mechanical 

industries   70.72        29.28        16.52 

Non-productive      (Not     gain- 
ful)      3^-80        68.20        58.77 

Housewives'  work    100  2.13 

Scholars  and  at  work  7S00        25.00         0.03 


40 


AMERICAN    PAUPERISM. 


Of  per- 
sons 
under 
each 

Males.  Females,  group, 

per  per          per 

Chicago.                                            cent.  cent.        cent. 

Agricultural,  the  fisheries  and 

mining    lOO         

Professional     89.42  10.58 

Domestic    and    personal    ser- 
vices      84.23  1577 

Trade  and  transportation  ....  90.31  9.69 

Manufactures  and  mechanical 

industries   77-04  22.96 

Non-productive      (Not     gain- 
ful)      33-3^  66.68 

Housewives'  work   100 

Scholars  and  at  work  60.26  39-74 

New  York. 

Agricultural,      fisheries      and 

mining    96.43  3.57 

Professional    90.80  9.20 

Domestic    and     personal    ser- 
vices      88.52  1 1.48 

Trade  and  transportation  ....  90.93  9.07 

Manufactures  and   mechanical 

industries   67.17  32.83 

Non-productive      (Not     gain- 
ful.   3783  62.7 

Housewives'  work    100 

Scholars  and  at  work  52.44  49-56 

Philadelphia. 

Agriculture,  fisheries  and  min- 
ing      92.86  7.14 

Professional    88.82  11. 18 

Domestic    and    personal    ser- 
vices      82.40  17.60 

Trade  and  transportation  ....  91.40  8.52 

Manufacture    and    mechanical 

industries     77.60  22.40 

Non-productive      (Not     gain- 
ful)   33  71  66.29        57.46 

Housewives'  work    100          r.42 

Scholars  and  at  work  65.52  34.48         0.17 


o.os 
0.95 

14.29 
11.29 

14.69 

5704 
0.89 
0.29 


0.1 
0.9 

13.46 
10.91 

15-04 

57-12 
2.19 
0.28 


0.08 
0.89 

11.56 

IMS 
17.27 


PAUPERISM   IN    THE  UNITED  STATES.  4I 

Glancing  at  the  labor  column,  showing  the 
proportion  of  persons  falling  under  each  indus- 
trial group,  we  sec  that  in  all  the  cities  named 
the  percentage  of  the  non  gainful  group  is  the 
largest,  reaching  almost  60  per  cent.  The  next 
largest  is  the  group  of  manufacturing  and  me- 
chanical industries.  Domestic  and  personal  serv- 
vices  follow  then,  leaving  a  very  small  percentage 
to  other  groups. 

The  average  earning  per  week  was  in  Baltimore   $8,655^ 

Chicago    .  9.88}/^ 
New  York  8.36 
Philadel- 
phia.... 8.68 
The  average  hours  of  work  per  week  in  Baltimore   64.2 

Chicago..  .60.94 
New  York  62.55 
Philadel- 
phia  62.47 

A  large  class  of  people,  however,  work  ninety 
or  over  hours  per  week;  in  Chicago,  New  York 
and  Philadelphia  .14  per  cent  of  wage  earners 
receive  under  $5.00  weekly,  while  the  number  of 
those  earning  more  than  $5  but  under  $10 
reached  37.59  per  cent.  The  number  of  those 
earning  $10  and  more  was  only  24.62  per  cent. 

Persons  unemployed  and  average  months  un- 
employed was  as  follows : 

Per  cent  Months 

unemployed,  unemployed. 

Baltimore    8.67  3.6 

Chicago   15.88  3.1 

New  York    9.02  3.I 

Philadelphia   15.19  2.9 

The  average  wages  of  all  four  of  the  cities 
investigated    was    $8.89    weekly.      As    on    the 


42  AMERICAN    PAUPERISM. 

average  one-fourth  of  the  year  there  is  no  em- 
ployment, Vv'e  have  to  calculate  only  39  weeks  to 
the  year.  Consequently  the  average  annual 
wages  of  inhabitants  of  slum  districts  amount  to 
$346.71  only  or  $6.66  a  week.  This  figure  gains 
in  silent  eloquence  if  we  take  into  consideration 
that  57.7  per  cent  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  slums 
are  engaged  in  nonproductive  (not  gainful)  oc- 
cupations.* The  magnificent  income  of  $346.71 
has  consequently  to  be  stretched  so  as  to  cover 
the  expenses  of  living  of  the  sick,  aged  and  chil- 
dren of  the  slums. 

Instructive  are  likewise  the  figures  about  the 
number  and  per  cent  of  families  and  individuals 
by  tenement  to  a  house. 

In  Baltimore  there  were  an  average  of  1.19 
persons  to  a  room.  Chicago  shows  an  average  of 
1.37  persons  to  a  room.  New  York  City  1.88  and 
Philadelphia  1.47.  The  greatest  number  of  tene- 
ments to  a  house  varied  from  13  in  Baltimore 
to  29  in  New  York  City,  Philadelphia  as  high  as 
15  and  Chicago  24.  The  large  number  of  fami- 
lies in  Baltimore,  Chicago  and  Philadelphia  liv- 
ing in  houses  having  one  to  five  tenements  is 
noticeable.  New  York  is,  however,  an  exception, 
showing  a  greater  proportion  of  families  living 
in  houses  having  larger  numbers  of  tenements  to 
the  house.  Philadelphia  showed  53.91  per  cent  of 
all  families,  comprising  60.97  P^r  cent  of  all  in- 
dividuals, living  in  houses  of  one  tenement,  that 
is,  occupying  the  whole  house.  Baltimore  fol- 
lows with  36.25  per  cent  of  families,  comprising 
43.12  per  cent  of  all  individuals.     Chicago  had 

*In  1870  in  the  United  States  only  32.4  per  cent  of 
the  population  were  reported  as  pursuing  gainful  occu- 
pation. 


TAUPEUISM   IN   THE  UNITED  STATES.  43 

9.53  per  cent  of  families,  comprising  11.73  per 
cent  of  individuals,  and  New  York  only  i  .84  per 
cent  of  families  comprising  7.96  per  cent  of  indi- 
viduals. In  New  York  and  Chicago  the  number 
of  persons  to  a  dwelling  in  the  slum  district  was 
almost  double  that  found  in  the  whole  city.  The 
figures  for  the  slum  districts  are  as  follows : 

Baltimore  7.75,  Chicago  15.51,  New  York 
36.79,  and  Philadelphia  7.34  persons  to  a  dwell- 
ing. 

In  Baltimore  13.16  per  cent  of  all  families  live 
in  tenements  of  one  room  with  an  average  of  3.15 
persons  to  a  room.  In  Chicago  5.87  per  cent  of 
all  families  live  in  one  room,  the  average  per- 
sons being  2.74.  The  per  cent  of  families  living 
in  one  room  in  New  York  was  5.62  and  Philadel- 
phia 12.10,  with  an  average  number  of  persons 
to  the  room  of  3.13  and  3.1 1  respectively. 

The  percentage  of  families  living  in  two  rooms 
in  each  of  the  four  cities  is  shown  to  be  as  fol- 
lows : 

Baltimore  27.88  per  cent,  Chicago  19.14  per 
cent,  New  York  44.53  per  cent,  and  Philadel- 
phia 19.41  per  cent. 

The  average  persons  to  a  room  in  these  fami- 
lies were,  in  Baltimore  1.92  persons,  in  Chicago 
1.93,  New  York  2.14,  and  Philadelphia  1.99. 
The  comparative  numlDer  of  families  living  in 
tenements  of  three  and  four  is  also  large,  the 
number  of  families  living  in  tenements  of  over 
four  rooms  comprising  but  a  small  per  cent  of  all 
families. 

In  Baltimore  slum  districts  but  7.35  per  cent 
of  all  families,  comprising  only  9.51  per  cent  of 
the  total  population,  have  both  rooms  big.  The 
pencentage  of  families  and  individuals  not  hav- 


44  AMERICAN    PAUPERISM. 

ing  both  rooms  big  is  92.65  per  cent  and  90.79 
per  cent  of  the  houses  investigated  in  New  York 
and  82.28  per  cent  in  Philadelphia. 

The  greatest  proportion  of  families  having 
yards  was  in  Philadelphia,  the  percentage  being 
89.56.  In  New  York  and  Baltimore  slightly 
more  than  84  per  cent  had  yards,  while  in  Chi- 
cago but  64.47  per  cent  of  its  families  involved  in 
the  investigation  had  yards. 

A  few  extracts  from  Jacob  Riis's  "How  the 
Other  Half  Lives"*  will  give  color  to  the  truthful 
but  somewhat  dry  statistical  data  we  have  pre- 
sented : 

"In  the  tenements  all  the  influences  make  for 
evil ;  because  they  are  the  hot  beds  of  epidemic 
that  carry  death  to  the  rich  and  poor  alike ;  the 
nurseries  of  pauperism  and  crime  that  fill  our 
jails  and  police  courts ;  that  throw  ofif  a  scum  of 
forty  thousand  human  wrecks  to  the  island  asy- 
lums and  workhouses  year  by  year;  that  turned 
out  in  the  last  eight  years  a  round  half  million 
beggars  to  prey  upon  our  charities ;  that  maintain 
a  standing  army  of  ten  thousand  tramps  with  all 
that  that  implies ;  because,  above  all,  they  taint 
the    family    life    with    deadly    moral    contagion, 

(p.  3-) 

"Neither  legislation  or  charity  can  cover  the 
ground.  The  greed  of  capital  that  wrought  the 
evil  must  itself  undo  it,  as  far  as  it  can  he  un- 
done,    (p.  4.) 

"A  tenement  house  is  generally  a  brick  build- 


*The  latest  publications  of  the  same  do  not  add  any- 
thing essentially  new  to  his  fundamental  work  we  are 
quoting  here  at  some  length.  His  "Ten  Years'  Battle" 
rather  proves  that  the  conditions  depicted  by  him  in 
his  first  book  did  not  chanj^e  materially. 


PAUPERISM   IN   THE  UNITF.I)  STATES.  45 

ing  from  four  to  six  stories  high  on  the  street, 
frequently  with  a  store  on  the  first  floor,  which, 
when  used  for  the  sale  of  liquor,  has  a  side 
opening  for  the  benefit  of  the  inmates  and  to 
evade  the  Sunday  law.  Four  families  occupy 
each  floor,  and  a  set  of  rooms  consists  of  one  or 
two  dark  closets  used  as  bedrooms,  with  a  living 
room  12x10.  The  staircase  is  too  often  a  dark 
well  in  the  center  of  the  house,  and  no  direct 
thorough  ventilation  is  possible,  each  family  be- 
ing separated  from  the  other  by  partitions.  Fre- 
quently the  rear  of  the  lot  is  occupied  by  another 
building  of  three  stories  high  with  two  families 
on  a  floor.  A  barrack  downtown,  where  he  has 
to  live  because  he  is  poor,  brings  a  third  more 
rent  than  a  decent  flat  house  in  Harlem.  It  no 
longer  excites  the  attention,  even  passing  atten- 
tion, when  the  sanitary  police  report  loi  adults 
and  91  children  in  a  Crosby  street  house,  one  of 
twins,  built  together.  The  children  in  the  other 
numbers  89,  a  total  of  180  children  for  the  two 
tenements ;  or  when  a  midnight  inspection  in 
Mulberry  street  unearths  a  hundred  and  fifty 
lodgers  sleeping  on  the  filthy  floors  in  two  build- 
ings. The  tenements  to-day  in  New  York  City 
are  harboring  three-fourths  of  its  population, 
(pp.  18  and  19.) 

"New  York's  wage-earners  have  no  other  place 
to  live  in  than  in  the  tenements,  more  is  the  pity. 
They  are  truly  poorer  for  having  no  better 
homes ;  waxing  poorer  in  purse  as  the  exorbitant 
rent  to  which  they  are  tied  keeps  rising  (p.  23). 
The  case  that  came  to  my  notice  in  a  Seventh 
Ward  tenement  was  typical  enough.  There  were 
nine  in  the  family ;  husband,  wife,  grandmother 
and  six  children ;  honest  hardworking  Germans, 


46  AMERICAN    PALTERISM. 

scrupulously  clean,  but  poor.  All  nine  lived  in 
two  rooms,  one  about  ten  feet  square  that  served 
as  parlor,  bedroom  and  eating-  room,  the  other  a 
small  hall  room  made  into  a  kitchen.  The  rent 
was  seven  dollars  and  a  half  a  month,  more  than 
a  week's  wages  for  the  husband  and  father,  who 
was  the  only  breadwinner  in  the  family.  That 
day  the  mother  had  thrown  herself  out  of  the 
window  and  was  carried  up  from  the  street 
dead.  "She  was  discouraged,"  said  some  of  the 
other  women  from  the  tenement,  who  had  come 
in  to  look  after  the  children  while  a  messenger 
carried    the    news   to    the    father    at   the    shop. 

(P-47). 

"According  to  the  police  figures,  4,974,025 
separate  lodgings  were  furnished  last  year  by 
these  dormitories,  or  cheap  lodging  houses,  be- 
tween two  and  three  hundred  in  number,  and  add- 
ing the  147,634  lodgings  furnished  by  the  station 
houses,  the  total  of  the  homeless  army  zvas 
§, 121,63c),  an  average  of  over  fourteen  thousand 
homeless  men  (deduct  69,111  women  lodgers 
in  the  police  station)  for  every  night  in  the  year. 
(p.  89).  In  the  dull  content  of  the  life  bred  on 
the  tenement  house  dead  level  there  are  few  re- 
deeming features.  There  is  nothing  to  calm  ap- 
prehension for  a  society  that  has  nothing  better 
to  offer  its  toilers.  The  patient  efiforts  of  the 
lives  devoted  to  rendering  the  situation  tolerable, 
and  the  very  sources  of  these  efforts,  serve  only 
to  bring  out  in  stronger  contrast  the  general 
gloom  of  the  picture,  by  showing  how  much 
farther  they  might  have  gone  with  half  a  chance. 
Go  into  any  of  the  "respectable"  tenement 
neighborhoods,  be  with  and  amongst  its  peo- 
ple until  you  understand  their  ways,  their  aims 


PAUPERISM    IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  47 

and  the  quality  of  their  ambitions,  and  unless  you 
can  content  yourself  with  the  Scriptural  promise 
"that  the  poor  we  shall  have  always  with  us,"  or 
note  the  menagery  view,  that  if  fed,  they  have  no 
cause  of  complaint,  you  shall  come  away  agree- 
ing with  me  that,  humanly  speaking,  life  there 
does  not  seem  worth  living  (p.  162).  It  is  (the 
tenement  of  the  slum  districts)  the  frame  in 
which  are  set  days,  weeks,  months  and  years  of 
unceasing  toil,  just  able  to  fill  the  mouth  and 
clothe  the  back.  Such  as  it  is,  it  is  the  world,  and 
all  of  it,  to  which  these  weary  workers  return 
nightly  to  feed  heart  and  brain  after  wearing  out 
the  body  at  the  bench,  or  in  the  shop  (164). 

"Every  once  in  awhile  a  case  of  downright 
poverty  and  starvation  gets  into  the  newspaper 
and  makes  a  sensation.  But  this  is  the  exception. 
Were  the  li'Jiole  truth  knozvn  it  zvoiild  come  home 
to  the  coynmunity  with  a  shock  that  would  rouse 
it  to  a  more  serious  effort  than  the  spasmodic 
undoing  of  its  pursestrings.  I  am  satisfied 
from  my  owm  observation  that  hundreds  of  men, 
women  and  children  are  every  day  slowly  starv- 
ing to  death  in  the  tenements  with  my  medical 
friends'  complaint  of  improper  nourishment. 
Within  a  single  w'eek  I  have  had  three  cases  of 
insanity,  provoked  directly  by  poverty  and  want 
(p.  171)  * 


^Incidentally  we  may  point  out  here,  that  the  number 
of  mentally  unbalanced  in  the  State  of  New  York  de- 
serves attention  as  an  indication  of  the  ever-increasing 
strain  on  the  nervous  system,  caused  by  the  economic 
struggle  for  existence.  The  annual  census  of  the  in- 
sane of  New  York,  as  presented  by  the  State  Board  of 
Charities,  shows  an  increase  of  660  annually  during 
the  twelve  years  ending  October  i,  1902,  or  a  total  of 


48  AMERICAN    PAUPERISM. 

"The  truth  is  that  pauperism  grows  as  natur- 
ally as  weeds  in  a  garden  lot"  (p.  246). 

The  following  extract  from  the  Chicago 
Tribune  (1903)  demonstrates  that  the  conditions 
are  not  much  different  in  Chicago  than  in  New 
York : 

"As  prosperity  increases  the  hardships  of 
poverty  increase  proportionally.  Prosperity  raises 
prices  but  does  not  raise  wages  of  washerwomen 
and  scrubwomen,  of  day  laborers.  The  present 
winter  promises  to  test  the  resources  of  Chicago's 
charities  to  their  utmost.  Added  to  the  high 
prices  demanded  for  food  is  the  high  price  de- 
manded for  coal." 

In  these  words,  Ernest  P.  Bicknell,  superin- 
tendent of  the  Chicago  Bureau  of  Charities, 
summed  up  the  situation  in  Chicago :  "It  is  an  odd 
situation,"  added  he,  "that  compels  those  who 
can  least  afford  it  to  pay  the  highest  price  for 
coal.  The  fact  that  the  poor  are  forced  to  pur- 
chase their  fuel  by  the  basketful  makes  them 
bear  the  heaviest  burden  of  the  suffering  result- 
ing from  the  famine  in  fuel." 

Such  conditions  make  the  existence  of  a  large 
portion  of  the  population  of  the  United  States 
precarious  and  dependent  on  the  tender  mercies 
of  the  parasitic  classes  without  even  the  means 

7,920.  At  the  beginning  of  the  period  the  insane  num- 
bered one  to  each  533  of  the  population  and  in  1892 
one  to  each  2i72)  oi  the  population.  The  increase  of  the 
population  from  1880  to  1890  was  28  per  cent,  while 
the  increase  of  the  number  of  insane  during  the  same 
period  was  38  per  cent.  [Remark  of  the  author.]  In 
eight  years  135,595  families  in  New  York  were  regis- 
tered as  asking  or  receiving  charity.  For  the  five  years 
past  one  person  in  every  ten  who  died  in  this  city  was 
buried  in  the  Potter's  field  (p.  243). 


PAUPERISM   IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  49 

of  approaching  complete  life  worthy  of  human 
beings. 

Is  it  to  be  wondered  at,  that  the  philosophy  of 
Discontent  and  Pessimism  is  the  philosophy  of 
our  age  of  mercantile  civilization? 

This  philosophy  was  aptly  expressed  by  Mrs. 
Browning  in  her  "Aurora  Leigh" : 

"The  world,  look  round — 

The  world  we're  come  to,  late,  is  swollen  hard, 
With  perished  generations  and  their  sins ; 
The  civiliser's  spade  grinds  horribly 
On  dead  men's  bones,  and  cannot  turn  up  soil 
That's  otherwise  than  fetid.     All  success 
Proves  partial  failure,  all  advance  implies 
What's  left  behind ;  all  triumph,  something  crushed 
At  the  chariot  wheels;  all  government,  some  wrong; 
And  rich  men  make  the  poor,  who  curse  the  rich. 
Who  agonise  together,  rich  and  poor, 
Under  and  over,  in  the  social  spasm 
And  crisis  of  the  ages.     Here's  an  age 
That  makes  its  own  vacation ;  here  we  have  stepped 
Across  the  bounds  of  time,  here's  nought  to  see, 
But  just  the  rich  man  and  just  Lazarus, 
And  both  in  torments,  with  a  mediate  gulf. 
Though  not  a  hint  of  Abraham's  bosom,  Who, 
Being  man  and  human,  can  stand  calmly  by 
And  view  these  things,  and  never  tease  his  soul 
For  some  great  cure?    No  physic  for  this  grief, 
In  all  the  earth,  and  heavens  too." 


THE  CHILDREN  OF  POVERTY  IN  THE 
UNITED  STATES. 

Each  stage  of  culture  and  civilization  has  its 
own  conception  of  right  and  wrong,  virtue  and 
vice,  honor  and  disgrace,  its  own  philosophy  of 
life.  This  fact  is  in  strict  accord  with  the  mate- 
rialistic or  evolutionary  conception  of  history. 
Even  the  myths  of  the  ancient  nations  testify  that 
hero-worship  is  subject  to  evolutionary  changes. 
The  gods  of  Babylonians,  for  instance,  were 
ferocious  human-flesh  devourers,  while  the  dei- 
ties of  ancient  Greece  were  drunkards  and 
adulterers.  The  phenomenon  of  idealization  of 
the  human  type  at  a  given  time  and  place  into  a 
supernatural  being  has  for  the  student  of  human 
destinies  a  peculiar  significance.  This  phenome- 
non reflects  the  philosophy  of  the  life  of  a  nation. 
The  stratification  of  society  in  distinct  castes  or 
classes,  the  so  called  higher  and  lower  classes,  is 
but  another  illustration  of  the  interdependence 
existing  between  material  conditions  and  human 
ideas  in  general.  The  aristocracy  of  Greece  of 
the  age  of  Pericles  consisted  of  slaveholders, 
who  devoted  almost  all  their  time  to  a  harmo- 
nious development  of  mind  and  body.  The  sol- 
dier, the  thinker,  the  orator,  the  artist,  the  states- 
man were  the  heroes  of  that  age. 

Rome  was  ruled  by  a  military  caste,  and  its 
hero  was  a  strenuous  warrior,  a  conqueror  of  na- 
tions. Physical  strength  and  endurance  were 
considered  as  virtues  (zn'ta,  vis,  virtus,  vir  meant 
life,  power,  virtue,  man).    To  be  physically  weak, 

50 


THE  CHILDREN  OF  POVERTY.        5 1 

to  lack  animal  spirits,  to  be  effeminate  was  con- 
sidered a  degradation.  The  essentially  military 
civilization  of  Rome,  and  Roman  conception  of 
human  worth  and  worthlcssness  prevailed  w'ith 
but  slight  modifications  during  the  early  part  of 
the  middle  ages.  When,  however,  the  power  of 
the  independent  feudal  nobility  was  absorbed  by 
the  kings,  and  the  feudal  system  of  land  tenure 
turned  into  a  stable  economic  system,  the  ideas 
about  social  distinctions  underwent  a  transforma- 
tion. Heredity,  blueblood,  was  esteemed  higher 
than  material  wealth.  A  trader  or  merchant  did 
not  dare  to  dream  about  social  equality  with  a 
nobleman.  The  growth  of  the  middle  or  bour- 
geois-class introduced  a  sordid  commercial  so- 
cial ideal,  a  philosophy  of  life  based  on  material 
wealth,  a  conception  about  human  worth  and 
worthlcssness  directly  measurable  by  an  eco- 
nomical status.  Ethics  were  reduced  to  arithme- 
tics and  religion  degraded  to  worship  of  success. 
The  aristocracy  of  our  commercial  age  is  a 
plutocracy.  Neither  the  bravery  of  a  soldier,  nor 
a  long  line  of  ancestors,  but  the  money  bag,  con- 
ifers social  distinction  of  the  highest  order.  The 
most  successful  money  maker  is  the  hero  of  our 
time.  It  was  a  disgrace  to  be  a  physical  weakling 
or  a  coward  in  ancient  Rome.  A  low  born  mer- 
chant, however  rich,  could  not  raise  his  head  in 
the  presence  of  feudal  snobs.  In  our  time  there 
is  no  greater  disgrace  than  material  poverty  and 
want.  In  our  parasitical  civilization  the  most  suc- 
cessful social  parasite  is  the  hero.  The  de- 
scendants of  a  moral  leper  like  Jay  Gould,  are 
always  before  the  public  eye,  as  the  descendants 
of  some  robber  baron  in  the  dark  ages  were, 
while  the  poor  children  of  the  poor,  laborers  de- 


52  AMERICAN    PAUPERISM. 

fraiidcd  by  the  same  Jay  Gould,  remain  in  con- 
temptuous obscurity.  \\'hat  does  it  matter  how 
Jay  Gould  acquired  his  riches?  Non  olet!  Money 
has  no  odor ! 

This  modern  spirit  of  success-worship  and  con- 
tempt of  failure  to  attain  economic  success  is 
probably  the  cause  of  the  absence  of  reliable  data 
about  the  number  of  the  poor  in  the  United 
States. 

The  successful  "captains  of  industry"  are  not 
over-anxious  to  make  an  exhibit  of  the  victims 
of  their  exploits.  On  the  other  hand  the  "re- 
spectable poor"  prefer  rather  to  suffer  all  the 
horrors  of  starvation  and  dire  want,  than  to 
make  their  indigence  known  to  strangers. 

The  student  of  the  economic  conditions  of  the 
so-called  lower  classes  of  the  population  of  the 
United  States  is  compelled  to  take  recourse  to  the 
circumstantial  evidences  of  poverty  contained  in 
the  incomplete  and  fragmentary  data  of  public 
charity  statistics,  reports  about  the  life  of  peo- 
ple in  the  slums  of  great  cities  and  similar  docu- 
ments. 

Inadequate  as  these  sources  of  information  ap- 
pear, they  however  unroll  before  our  eyes  at  least 
a  part  of  the  picture,  a  part  by  which  we  may 
form  our  more  or  less  correct  conception  about 
the  rest  of  the  picture.  Taking  into  consideration 
the  above  mentioned  aversion  of  the  respectable 
poor  to  publicity,  we  may  safely  conclude  that 
our  sources  of  information  may  lead  us  to  an 
underestimate  of  the  number  of  the  poor  in  the 
United  States  rather  than  to  an  over  statement 
of  facts.  In  our  days  of  commercial  culture  and 
mercantile  civilization  poverty  is  considered  as  a 
disgrace  and  many  a  man  and  many  a  woman 


THE  CHILDREN  OF  TOVERTY.        53 

prefer  to  suffer  the  biting  pangs  of  bitter  poverty 
in  silence  rather  than  to  make  their  indigence 
known  to  strangers. 

There  is,  however,  one  element  of  the  poor  un- 
tainted by  any  of  the  prejudices  of  a  parasitic 
civilization,  one  element  who  do  not  make  any 
secret  of  their  destitution  and  want.  This  ele- 
ment is  the  innocent  children  that  are  dragged 
into  pauperism  and  destitution  by  their  parents. 

In  the  American  experience  the  large  number 
of  the  destitute  children  is  striking. 

Out  of  4,310  persons  dealt  with  by  the  New 
York  C.  O.  S.  in  1891  40.8  per  cent,  or  1,762, 
were  under  14  years  of  age.  In  Boston  out  of 
3,972  individuals  dealt  with  42.5  per  cent  were 
under  fourteen  years  of  age.  In  Buffalo  out  of 
2,515  individuals  48.3  per  cent  were  under  14 
years  of  age.  In  Baltimore  the  per  cent  of  those 
under  14  years  of  age  drops  to  a  little  less  than 
16  (15.8). 

On  the  whole  it  must  be  concluded  that  in  the 
United  States  the  leading  cause  of  incipient  pau- 
perism, as  investigated  by  American  charity  or- 
ganization societies,  is  the  zveakness  of  children. 
New  York  and  California  have  now  about  250 
children  of  the  dependent  class  to  each  thousand 
of  their  population.  At  the  Denver  conference 
of  charities,  Mr.  Hart,  of  the  Minnesota  State 
Board  of  Charities  and  Corrections,  estimated  the 
number  of  dependent  children  in  the  United 
States  to  be  74,000.  The  expenditure  for  build- 
ing and  "plant"  used  in  taking  care  of  these 
children  he  put  at  $40,000,000,  and  the  annual 
expenditure  for  maintenance  in  all  the  forms  $9,- 
500,000.  About  9,000  persons  were  supposed  to 
be  employed  as  care-takers.     There  were  15,000 


54  AMERICAN    PAUrERISM. 

inmates  in  juvenile  reformatories  costing  $io,- 
000,000  and  entailing  an  annual  average  charge 
for  maintenance  of  $2,000,000.  (These  juvenile 
delinquents  are  of  course  children  of  the  poor.) 
Read  Edna  Sheldrake's  article  in  the  World's 
Review  (April  27,  1901),  who  draws  the  fol- 
lowing composite  picture  of  a  "juvenile  delin- 
quent": "He  is  I2j%  years  old,  one  of  seven 
people  living  in  three  rooms.  These  rooms  are 
such  as  can  be  rented  for  $7.50  per  month. 
Eight  dollars,  sixty  cents  per  week  pays  the  rent, 
buys  fuel,  food,  clothing,  pays  the  fee  required 
in  the  parochial  school,  buys  books, — in  short, 
provides  for  all  the  needs  required  of  the  family. 
There  is  no  place  for  healthy  recreation.  The 
house  is  crowded,  dreary,  uninviting.  Cheap  and 
pernicious  museums  with  a  placard  outside, 
'Ladies  not  admitted'  abound  in  the  neighbor- 
hood." ^ 

The  increase  of  the  number  of  infants  in  the 
infant  asylums  as  compared  with  the  increase  of 
the  population  during  the  years  1894-98  was  as 
follows  in  Manhattan  and  the  Bronx : 

Population 
Per  in 

cent  infant        Normal 

Year.        Population,      increase.        asylums.       increase. 

1894 1,809,353 29.02 2,747 802.194 

1895 1,879,195 37.08 2,708 1023.624 

1896 1,934,077 29.02 2,738 799496 

1897 1.990.562 29.02 2,920 852.640 

1898 2,048,830 29.03 3,006 86.756 

It  appears  for  the  years  1896  and  1898  the 
increase  was  under  normal,  while  in  1897  it  was 
decidedly  abnormal.  The  death  rate  of  children 
in  these  asylums    varies    from    1.58    per    cent 


THE    CIIILDKEX    OF    rON'ERTY.  55 

(Hebrew  Asylum)  to  40.35  per  cent  (St.  Jo- 
seph's Home  for  Babies),  or  an  average  of  21.75 
per  cent. 

The  census  of  these  institutions  on  the  ist 
day  of  October  each  year  from  1894  to  1898  was 
as  follows : 

1894   12,594 

1S95   •• 12,192 

1896    11,267 

1897   •  • 10,899 

1898   11,610 

The  following  table  shows  the  population  of 
the  borough  of  Bronx  and  Manhattan  and  also 
the  population  of  children  in  institutions  of  the 
orphanage  class  from  the  same  borough,  and 
the  rate  of  such  children  to  each  1,000  of  the 
general  population : 

Rate  of  each 

child  to  each 

1,000  of  the 

General  Destitute       general 

Years  population.  children.      population. 

1894 1,809,353 12,594 6.95 

1895 1,879,195 12,192 6.48 

1896 1,934,077 11,267 5-82 

1897 1,990,562 10,899 547 

1898 2,048,830 11,610 567 

At  the  same  time  there  were  destitute  infants : 

1894  2,748  I-5I 

1895  2,708  1-44 

1896  2,738  141 

1897  2,920  146 

1898  3,006  1.46 

It  may  be  instructive  in  connection  with  these 
figures  to  cast  a  cursory  glance  at  the  data  about 
the  population  of  institutions  in  receipt  of  pub- 


56  AMERICAN    PAUPERISM. 

lie  money  but  in  private  control  from  the  close 
of  the  fiscal  year  ending  September  30,  1896,  to 
September  30,  1901    (Homes  for  Children)  : 

September  30,    1896 (119  institutions) 27,769 

September  30,    1897 (121  institutions) 28,380 

Se])tember  30,   1898 (123  institutions) 29,967 

September  30,    1899 (123  institutions) 29,440 

September  30,   1900 (122  institutions) 28,649 

September  30,   1901 (121  institutions) 29,241 

The  increase  of  the  number  of  inmates  for  the 
year  ending  September  30,  1901,  was  591  (Of- 
ficial Report  Charity  Association,  p.   140). 

A  peculiar  feature  of  the  New  York  State 
public  charity  is  the  marked  tendency  to  build  up 
private  eleemosynary  institutions  of  the  State  at 
the  expense  of  public  ones.  One  institution, 
officered  by  a  religious  order,  received  from  the 
city  government  more  than  $260,000  per  year. 
A  list  of  over  two  hundred  private  institutions 
for  orphaned  children  and  the  friendless  in  New 
York  shows,  that  of  their  total  revenue  but 
$1,225,104.69  was  derived  from  legacies,  etc., 
while  more  than  twice  as  much  money,  namely, 
$2,664,614.40,  came  from  the  taxpayers  of  the 
State,  county  and  city.  The  following  data  fur- 
nished by  Mrs.  Josephine  Shaw-Lowell  proves 
that  curious  policy: 

Expenses  for 

prisoners       Expenses 

and  paupers  for  paupers 

in  public      in  private 


Years. 

Population. 

institutions. 

institutions. 

Total. 

1850.... 

•■•       515,547 

$   421,882 

$       9,863 

$   431,745 

i860.... 

. . .       813,669 

746,549 

128,850 

875,399 

1870.... 

942,292 

1,355.61s 

334,828 

1,690.443 

1880.... 

• .  •    1,206,577 

1.348,383 

1,414,257 

2,761,640 

1890.. .. 

...    1,600,000 

1,949,100 

1,845,812 

3,794,972 

THE  CHILDREN  OF  POVERTY.        5/ 

Writing  in  1891,  IMrs.  Josephine  Shaw-Lowell 
said:  "The  point  to  which  I  wish  to  call  atten- 
tion is  that  the  city  of  New  York  continues,  at 
the  bidding  of  legislature,  to  pay  without  pro- 
test, year  by  year,  increasing  sums  for  the  sup- 
port of  public  dependents  under  the  care  of  per- 
sons in  private  institutions,  many  of  whom,  but 
for  this  provision,  would  probably  not  be  de- 
pendent at  h11,  while  at  the  same  time  the  public 
dependents,  under  the  care  of  public  officers  in 
public  institutions,  are  housed  in  buildings  which 
are  in  danger  of  falling  down,  and  are  a  discredit 
to  the  city." 

For  the  year  1898  the  population  was  3438,- 
899.  For  public  prisoners  and  paupers  $2,334,- 
456.49  was  expended,  and  for  paupers  in  private 
institutions  $3,131,580.51  was  expended.  In 
view  of  this  data,  it  will  be  interesting  to  state 
here  the  amount  appropriated  by  other  large 
cities  of  the  United  States  to  private  institutions. 
According  to  statistics  collected  by  the  special 
committee  of  charities,  organizations,  and  socie- 
ties, the  data  are  as  follows: 

Chicago    $      2,796.00 

Philadelphia    151,020.00 

St.  Louis   22,579.30 

Boston    none. 

Baltimore 227,350.00 

Cincinnati    none. 

Cleveland   none. 

New  Orleans    30,1 10.00 

Pittsburg    none. 

Washington     194,500.00 

Detroit    8,081.00 

Milwaukee     none. 

Newark    '. 7,500.00 

Jersey  City   none. 

Minneapolis     2,000.00 

New  York  City    3,131,580.51 


58  AMERICAN    I'ALPERISM. 

Only  about  21  per  cent  of  the  cost  of  depend- 
ent children  is  borne  by  private  benevolence  in 
New  York  City.  (Conference  on  care  of  De- 
pendent and  Delinquent  Children,  New  York, 
1893,  pp.  164  and  165.)  The  city  controller  of 
New  York,  Hon.  Bird  S.  Coler,  says  in  his  paper 
on  Municipal  Subsidies  (Charities,  Vol.  Ill,  p. 
16): 

"Seventy  Institutions  receive  appropriations 
aggregating  $350,000  in  bulk,  i.  e.,  upon  no  basis 
of  payment  for  actual  services  performed.  An 
examination  of  the  returns  made  by  the  institu- 
tions receiving  appropriations  in  bulk  from  the 
city  treasury  shows  that  many  of  them  are  using 
the  public  funds  for  purposes  not  authorized  by 
the  constitution  (i.  e.,  not  'for  care  and  mainte- 
nance'). The  reports  of  a  large  number  of  insti- 
tutions show  the  money  annually  obtained  from 
the  city  carried  forward  wholly  or  in  part  as 
surplus.  Different  uses  are  made  of  this  sur- 
plus, none  of  them,  however,  authorized  by  law, 
or  warranted  by  a  proper  regard  of  the  interests 
of  the  taxpayer.  In  some  cases  this  surplus  is 
used  to  pay  off  mortgage  indebtedness,  in  others 
for  permanent  addition  to  buildings  or  for  in- 
crease of  investments  and  endowment.  In  one 
case  the  manager  of  an  institution  frankly  ex- 
plained a  remarkable  falling  off  in  disbursements 
(so  great  that  its  charitable  activities  were  al- 
most suspended)  by  stating  that  it  was  proposed 
by  exercising  great  economy  for  a  number  of 
years  to  let  the  city  annual  appropriations  ac- 
cumulate into  a  respectable  building  fund." 

That  this  subsidy  system  of  public  charities 
may  cover  a  multitude  of  political  sins  of  com- 
mission and  omission  seems  to  us  obvious.  There 


THE  CHILDREN  OF  POVERTY.        59 

is  nothing  sacred  to  old  party  politicians.  Mr. 
Elbridge  T.  Gerry,  president  of  "The  Society  for 
the  Prevention  of  Cruelty  to  Children,"  in  his 
defence  of  the  society  and  its  methods  before 
Albert  Stickney,  appointed  by  Justice  Beach  to 
investigate  the  institution,  admitted  that  Superin- 
tendent Jenkins  had  a  contract  for  feeding  chil- 
dren at  twenty-five  cents  a  meal.  Mr.  Jenkins 
gets  an  annual  salary  of  $3,000,  has  a  floor  in 
the  building  of  the  society,  rent  free  for  his 
family,  and  lives  in  summer  at  Larchmont.  Mr. 
Gerry  admitted,  also,  that  he  in  one  year  made 
$993  out  of  the  contract  for  feeding  the  children, 
and  in  no  year  had  to  lose  anything  (New  York 
Morning  Journal,  June  22,  1892). 

As  we  are  not  interested  at  present  in  the  study 
of  methods  of  public  charity  we  will  pass  the 
foregoing  statements  without  any  further  com- 
ment. 

Foundling  hospitals  are  for  the  most  part 
institutions  where  infants  die.  A  death  rate  of 
97  per  cent  per  annum  for  children  under  three 
years  of  age  is  not  uncommon  in  some  institu- 
tions. The  cause  of  such  mortality  is  due  to 
neglect.  From  1,439  children  who  died  in  1899, 
1,123  w^ere  inmates  of  infant  asylums.  Neglect 
of  the  children  of  the  poor  was  the  rule  till 
1875.  Children  were  kept  together  with  adult 
paupers  in  alms-houses.  In  1875  a  law  was 
passed  (Children's  Law)  which  forbade  the  keep- 
ing of  children  between  the  ages  of  two  and  six- 
teen years  in  the  alms-houses.  It  further  stipu- 
lated that  the  county  should  pay  child's  board 
in  some  special  institution.  Special  acts  were 
subsequently  passed  enabling  certain  large  insti- 
tutions in  New  York  to  receive  children  at  will 
and  collect  from  the  county  two  dollars  per  week 


6o  AMERICAN    PAUPERISM. 

for  the  care  of  each.  The  above  mentioned  sub- 
sidy system  then  increased  rapidly.  In  1850  the 
amount  appropriated  for  the  poor  cared  for  in 
private  institutions  was  only  $9,863.  This  amount 
grew  by  decades  as  follows: 

In  i860,  $128,850;  in  1870,  $334,828;  in  1880, 
$1,414,257;  in  1890,  $1,845,870,  and  in  1900  for 
greater  New  York,  $3,079,259.  (Hon.  Bird  S. 
Coler  in  the  Report  of  the  National  Conference 
of  Charities,  XXVIII.) 

In  1892  (October  31)  there  were  in  the  city 
and  county  alms-houses  of  the  State  of  New 
York  936  children.  Beside  this  there  were  in 
the  private  institutions  of  the  State,  but  supported 
chiefly  by  the  cities  and  counties,  an  army  of 
27,074  children.  In  these  private  institutions 
alone,  there  zvas  one  dependent  child  to  each  2/0 
persons.  The  cost  of  the  children  to  the  tax- 
payers of  New  York  State  for  the  fiscal  year 
ending  September  30,  1892,  was  $2,019,342.94. 
(Tables  19-21  in  XXV  Report  of  New  York 
Board  of  Charities  and  Corrections,  1891.) 

Only  about  twenty  per  cent  of  the  dependent 
children  of  New  York  are  orphans,  and  a  very 
large  number  of  them,  as  soon  as  they  become 
old  enough  to  be  of  use,  are  returned  to  their 
pauper  relatives  or  friends,  that  is,  the  persons 
who  had  given  them  up  to  be  paupers.  (XXVIII 
Annual  Report  of  New  York  State  Board  of 
Charities  and  Corrections.)* 

*From  the  30,973  children  received  in  127  homes  for 
children  Sept.  30,  1899,  9,363  had  parents  living.  Dur- 
ing the  fiscal  year  ending  September  30,  1901,  there 
were  discharged  from  the  homes  for  children  under 
private  control,  but  in  receipt  of  public  money,  15,217 
children.  From  them  9,868  (64.8  per  cent.)  were 
turned  over  to  relatives,  43  to  friends  and  guardians, 
and  598  became  self  supporting. 


THE  CHILDREN  OF  POVERTY.        6l 

"Child  Storage  at  public  expense"  has  been 
suggested  as  an  appropriate  sign  over  the  en- 
trance to  the  great  New  York  caravansary  for 
dependent  children.  Of  the  children  supported 
by  charity  in  New  York  one-seventh  are  sup- 
ported in  private  institutions  at  private  expense 
(fourteen  per  cent  of  the  total  expenditure). 
Twenty-one  per  cent  of  the  expense  of  caring  for 
the  dependent  children  is  borne  by  private  be- 
nevolence, while  seventy-nine  per  cent  is  borne 
by  the  city.  In  New  York  one  institution  that 
received  in  1892  $250,000  from  the  city,  re- 
ceived from  private  sources  less  than  $500,  and 
in  the  case  of  twelve  institutions  the  receipts 
from  private  sources  were  less  than  five  per  cent 
of  the  total  expenditure.  (American  Charities, 
by  Amos  G.  Warner.) 

The  number  of  beneficiaries  in  institutions  sub- 
ject to  the  supervision  of  the  Board  of  Charities, 
Oct.  I,  1899,  was  70,572.  Among  them  were 
31,410,  or  about  44  per  cent,  dependent  children. 

The  following  table  will  show  the  expense  of 
the  State  of  New  York  for  dependent  children 
from  the  year  1889  to  1899: 


Orphanage 

Infant 

Total 

Year. 

class. 

class. 

expense. 

1889 

$1,135,886.46 

$430,969.3 

$1,566,855.79 

1890 

1,075,872.50 

448,871.57 

1,524,479.47 

1891 

1,186,864.10 

452,146.32 

1,639,010.42 

1892 

1,197,898.46 

436,877.69 

1,639,775.18 

1893 

1,195,002.29 

455,273.68 

1,650,275.97 

1894 

1,133,507.87 

447,633.57 

1,779,141.44 

189s 

1,180,564.97 

431,990.00 

1,612,515.06 

1896 

1,187,476.27 

440,503.19 

1,627,979-46 

1897 

1,257,939.84 

463,788.03 

1,721,727.87 

1898 

1,183,721.46 

452,308.77 

1,636,030.23 

1899 

1,580,732.00 

62  AMERICAN    PAUPF-RISM. 

Bird  S.  Colcr,  controller  of  the  city  of  New 
York,  states  that  of  a  total  of  $3,249,623.81,  ap- 
propriated for  private  charities  in  1899,  no  less 
than  $2,216,773,  or  69  per  cent,  was  for  the  care 
of  children  and  their  support.  In  no  city  in  the 
United  States  will  the  number  of  children  sup- 
ported at  public  expense  compare  in  proportion 
to  population  with  the  number  of  those  cared  for 
in  New  York  City.  In  the  city  of  New  York, 
50,638  children  are  supported  in  private  institu- 
tions at  public  expense.  This  is  one  child  to 
everv  68  of  the  estimated  population  of  the  city 
(3438,877).  ^ 

Mr.  C.  Loringf  Brace,  the  secretary  of  the  Chil- 
dren's Aid  Society  in  the  year  1901,  stated  in  his 
report  that  during-  the  last  twelve  months  the 
expenditures  of  that  organization  amounted  to  no 
less  than  $543,109.07.  The  number  of  children 
aided  during  the  last  year  was  given  by  Mr. 
Brace  in  tabular  form  as  follows : 

Industrial    school    16,364 

Given  relief  in  their  homes 9,307 

In  lodging  houses    4,226 

In  farm  schools  645 

In  charge  of  probation  ofificers 300 

In  summer  homes    19,562 

Given  a  day's  outing 1,781 

Treated  by  sick  mission  1,486 

Placed  in  homes    476 

Placed  in  homes  at  wages 247 

Assisted  to  emigrate  712 

Total    55,106 

(Nczv  York  Times,  November  26,  1902.) 

The  statistical  data  we  present  here  are  suf- 
ficient to  give  an  idea  about  the  burden  of  pauper- 
ism weig^hing  on  the  tender  shoulders  of  the  "poor 


TIIK    CIIIT.nREX    01-    POVERTY.  63 

children  of  the  poor."  The  figures  and  facts 
presented  by  us  are  more  eloquent  than  any 
amount  of  sentimental  circumlocution. 

We  would,  however,  not  consider  our  presen- 
tation of  the  problem  complete  without  a  few 
extracts  from  the  writings  of  a  careful  and  con- 
scientious, but  somewhat  conservative  and  opti- 
mistic observer,  Mr.  Jacob  A.  Riis.  His  known 
conservatism  and  rather  unwarranted  optimism 
guarantee  that  his  assertions  are  free  from  any 
exaggerations.  He  cannot  by  any  means  be 
accused  of  being  a  calamity-howler,  or  malcon- 
tent demagogue. 

About  the  children  in  the  slums  he  says :  "It 
is  the  home  itself  that  constitutes  their  chief 
hardship.  It  is  only  when  his  years  offer  the 
boy  an  opportunity  of  escape  to  the  street,  that 
a  ray  of  sunlight  falls  into  his  life.  In  his  back 
yard  or  in  his  alley  it  seldom  finds  him  out. 
Thenceforward  most  of  his  time  is  spent  there, 
until  the  school  or  the  shop  claim  him,  but  not 
in  idleness.  ("The  Children  of  the  Poor,"  p. 
20.) 

"There  are  still  a  lot  of  girls  in  Italian  slums 
who  drag  as  big  loads  as  their  brothers,  but  since 
the  sewing  machine  found  its  way,  with  the 
sweater's  m.ortgage,  into  the  Italian  slums  also, 
little  Antonia  has  been  robbed  to  a  large  extent 
even  of  the  poor  freedom,  and  has  taken  her  place 
among  the  wage-earners,  when  not  on  the  school 
bench.  Once  taken,  the  place  is  here  to  keep  for 
good.  Sickness,  unless  it  be  mortal,  is  no  excuse 
from  the  drudgery  of  the  tenement.  When  re- 
cently, one  little  Italian  girl,  hardly  yet  in  her 
teens,  stayed  away  from  her  class  in  the  Mott 
Street  Industrial  School  so  long  that  her  teacher 


64  AMERICAN    PAUPERISM. 

went  to  look  her  up,  she  found  the  child  in  high 
fever,  in  bed,  sewing  on  coats,  with  swollen  eyes, 
though  hardly  able  to  sit  up  (p.  21).  Poverty 
and  ignorance  are  fearful  allies  in  the  homes  of 
the  poor  against  defenceless  childhood.  Two 
cases  which  I  encountered  in  the  East  Side  tene- 
ments, in  the  summer  of  1891,  are  without  a 
doubt  typical  of  very  many.  The  one  was  the 
case  of  little  Carmen,  who  last  March  died  in  the 
New  York  Hospital,  where  she  had  lain  five  long 
months,  the  special  care  of  the  Society  for  the 
Prevention  of  Cruelty  to  Children.  She  was 
found  by  the  doctor  lying  in  a  little  back  room, 
up  two  flights,  and  looking  upon  a  narrow  back 
yard  where  it  was  always  twilight.  The  room 
was  filthy  and  close,  and  entirelv  devoid  of  furni- 
ture, with  the  exception  of  a  rickety  stool,  a  slop 
pail  and  a  rusty  old  stove,  one  end  of  which  was 
propped  up  with  bricks.  Carmen's  bed  was  a 
l3oard  laid  across  the  top  of  a  barrel  and  a  trunk 
set  on  end.  I  could  not  describe,  if  I  would,  the 
condition  of  the  child  when  she  was  raised  from 
the  mess  of  straw  and  rags  in  which  she  lay. 
The  sight  unnerved  even  the  nurse,  who  had  seen 
little  else  but  such  scenes  all  summer.  Loath- 
some bedsores  had  attacked  the  wasted  little 
body,  and  in  truth  Carmen  was  more  dead  than 
alive  (p.  23).  I  found  boys,  who  ought  to 
have  been  at  school,  picking  bones  and  sorting 
rags.  They  said  that  they  slept  there  (in  the 
dumps).  It  was  their  home.  They  were  chil- 
dren of  the  dump,  literally.  Two  boys  whom  I 
found  at  the  West  Nineteenth  Street  dumps  sort- 
ing bones  were  as  bright  lads  as  I  have  seen  any- 
where ;  one  was  nine  years  old  and  the  other 
was  twelve.     Filthy  and  ragged,  they  fitted  well 


THE    CIIII.DRI'.X    OF    PO\-l-:UTV.  65 

into  their  environment ;  even  the  pig  I  had  en- 
countered at  one  of  the  East  River  dumps  was 
much  more  respectable,  as  to  appearance,  of  the 
lot — but  were  entirely  undaunted  by  it.  They 
scarcely  remembered  anything  but  the  dump. 
Neither  could  read,  of  course.  Further  down 
the  river  I  came  upon  one,  seemingly  not  over 
fifteen,  who  assured  me  that  he  was  twenty-one. 
The  dumps  had  stunted  him.  He  did  not  even 
know  what  a  letter  was.  He  had  been  there 
five  years  and  garbage  limited  his  mental  as  well 
as  his  physical  horizon  (p.  29). 

"It  is  a  long  time  since  I  have  heard  a  good 
honest  laugh,  a  child's  gleeful  shout,  in  Ludlow 
Street.  Children  laugh  because  they  are  happy. 
They  are  not  happy  in  Ludlow  Street.  Why 
should  they  be?  Born  to  toil  and  trouble,  they 
claim  their  heritage  early  and  part  with  it  late. 
There  is  work  for  the  weakest  hand,  a  step  for 
the  smallest  feet  in  the  vast  tread-mill  of  these 
East  Side  houses.  The  average  age  at  which 
these  children  leave  school  for  good  is  rather 
below  tv/elve  than  beyond  it,  by  which  time  their 
work  at  home,  helping  their  parents,  has  qualified 
them  to  earn  wages  that  will  more  than  pay  for 
their  keep.  When,  in  the  midnight  hour,  the 
noise  of  the  sewing  machine  was  stilled  at  last, 
I  have  gone  the  rounds  of  Ludlow  and  Hester 
and  Essex  streets,  and  counted  often  four  and 
five  and  even  six  of  the  little  ones  in  a  single 
bed,  sometimes  a  shake  down  on  the  board  floor, 
often  a  pile  of  half-finished  clothing  brought 
home  from  the  sweater,  in  the  stuffy  room  of 
their  tenement.  In  one  I  visited  very  lately,  the 
only  bed  was  occupied  by  the  entire  family  lying 
lengthwise  and  crosswise,  literally  in  layers,  three 


66  AMERICAN    PAUPERISM. 

children  at  the  feet,  all  except  a  boy  of  ten  or 
twelve  for  whom  there  was  no  room.  He  slept 
with  his  clothes  on  to  keep  him  warm,  in  a  pile 
of  rags  just  inside  the  door  (pp.  38-39).  It 
was  said  of  Napoleon  that  he  shortened  the  aver- 
age stature  of  the  Frenchman  one  inch  by  get- 
ting all  the  tall  men  killed  in  his  wars.  The 
tenement  has  done  that  for  New  York.  My 
medical  friend  finds  it  a  fact  that  poverty  stunts 
the  body,  which  he  is  pleased  to  call  a  beautiful 
provision  of  nature  to  prevent  unnecessary  suf- 
fering; there  is  less  for  poverty  to  perish  then. 
It  is  a  self-defence,  he  says,  and  he  claims  that 
the  consensus  of  learned  professional  opinion  is 
with  him.  It  is  the  tenement  that  gives  up  the 
child  to  the  street  in  tender  years  to  find  there 
the  home  it  denied  him.  Its  exorbitant  rent  robs 
him  of  the  schooling  that  is  his  one  chance  to 
elude  its  grasp,  by  compelling  his  enrollment  in 
the  army  of  wage-workers  before  he  has  learned 
to  read.  Its  alliance  with  the  saloon  guides  his 
baby  feet  along  the  well-beaten  path  of  the 
growler  that  completes  his  ruin.  Its  power  to 
prevent  and  corrupt  has  always  to  be  considered, 
its  point  of  view  always  to  be  taken,  to  get  the 
perspective  in  dealing  with  the  poor,  or  the  cart 
will  seem  to  be  forever  getting  before  the  horse 
in  a  way  not  to  be  understood"   (p.  64). 

"But  if  the  three  R's  suffer  neglect  among  the 
children  of  the  poor,  their  lessons  in  the  three 
D's — Dirt,  Discomfort  and  Disease,  that  form 
the  striking  features  of  their  environment — are 
early  and  thorough  enough  (p.  67). 

"Poverty  and  child-labor  are  yoke-fellows 
everywhere.  Their  union  is  perpetual,  indissol- 
uble.    The  one  begets  the  other.     Need  sets  the 


THE  CHILDREN  OF  POVERTY.        67 

child  to  work  when  it  should  be  at  school  and  its 
labor  breeds  low  wages,  thus  increasing  the  need. 
That  the  law  'prohibiting  children  under  the  age 
of  fourteen  to  work  in  factories'  has  had  the 
eflfect  of  greatly  diminishing  the  number  of  child- 
workers  I  do  not  believe.  The  child  of  eleven  at 
home  and  at  the  night  school  is  fifteen  in  the 
factory  as  a  matter  of  course.  Nobody  is  de- 
ceived, but  the  perjury  defeats  the  purpose  of 
the  law  (pp.  92,  93). 

"I  undertook  a  census  of  a  number  of  the  most 
crowded  houses,  in  company  with  a  policeman 
not  in  uniform.  The  outcome  proved  that,  as  I 
suspected,  as  regards  those  houses  at  least  (and 
I  have  no  doubt  they  were  a  fair  sample  of  the 
rest),  the  law  was  practically  inoperative.  In 
nine  tenements  that  were  filled  with  home-work- 
ers we  found  five  children  at  work,  v^dio  owried 
that  they  w^ere  under  age.  Two  were  girls,  nine 
years  of.age.  Two  boys  said  they  were  thirteen. 
We  found  thirteen  who  swore  that  they  were  of 
age.  In  seven  back-yard  factories  we  found  63 
children,  of  whom  five  admitted  being  under  age, 
while  the  rest,  45,  seemed  surely  so.  To  the 
other  thirteen  we  gave  the  benefit  of  the  doubt, 
but  I  do  not  think  they  deserved  it.  All  the  63 
were  to  my  mind  certainly  under  fourteen,  judg- 
ing not  only  from  their  size  but  from  the  whole 
appearance  of  the  children.  My  subsequent  ex- 
perience  confirmed   me   fully  in  this  belief    (p. 

95)- 

"A  vast  horde  of  fifty  thousand  children  is 
growing  up  in  this  city  (New  York)  wdiom  our 
public  schools  do  not  and  can  not  reach ;  if  it 
reaches  them  at  all  it  is  with  the  threat  of  jail. 
The  mass  of  them  is  no  doubt  to  be  found  in  the 


68  AMERICAN    PAUPERISM. 

shops  and  factories  as  I  have  shown.  A  large 
number  peddle  newspapers,  or  black  boots.  Still 
another  contingent,  much  too  large,  does  nothing 
but  idle,  in  training  for  the  penitentiary.  As  a 
matter  of  fact  the  record  of  average  attendance 
shows  that  the  public  school  per  cent  reaches 
little  more  than  a  third  of  all  the  children.  And 
even  those  it  does  not  hold  long  enough  to  do 
them  the  good  that  was  intended.  The  superin- 
tendent of  schools  declares  that  the  average  at 
which  the  children  leave  school  is  twelve  or  a 
little  over  (p.  126). 

"Under  the  heading,  'Just  one  of  God's  chil- 
dren,' one  of  the  morning  newspapers  told  the 
story  last  winter  of  a  newsboy  at  the  Brooklyn 
Bridge  who  fell  in  a  fit  with  his  bundle  of  papers 
under  his  arm,  and  was  carried  into  the  waiting 
room  by  the  bridge  police.  The  reporters  asked 
the  little  dark-eyed  woman  at  the  bridge  entrance 
which  boy  it  was. 

"Little  Maher  it  was,"  she  answered. 

"Who  takes  care  of  him?" 

"Oh !  no  one  but  God,"  said  she,  "and  he  is 
too  busy  with  other  folks  to  give  him  much  atten- 
tion." 

"Little  Maher  was  the  representative  of  a  class 
that  is  happily  growing  smaller  year  by  year. 
There  are  homeless  children  in  New  York.  It 
is  certain  that  we  shall  always  have  our  full 
share.  The  menace  of  the  Submerged  Tenth  has 
not  been  blotted  out  from  the  register  of  the 
Potter's  field,  and  though  the  "twenty  thousand 
poor  children  who  would  not  have  known  that 
it  was  Christmas"  but  for  the  public  notice  to 
that  efifect,  be  a  benevolent  fiction,  there  are  plenty 
whose  brief  lives  have  had  little  enough  of  the 


THE  CHILDREN  OF  POVERTY.        69 

embodiment  of  Christmas  cheer  and  good  will 
in  them  to  make  the  name  seem  like  a  bitter 
mockery  (p.  247). 

"It  is  in  the  lodging  houses  for  homeless  chil- 
dren one  may  study  the  homelessness  that  mocks 
the  miles  of  brick  walls  which  enclose  New  York's 
tenements,  but  not  its  homes.  One  may  still 
hunt  up  by  night  waifs  who  make  their  beds  in 
alleys  and  cellars  and  abandoned  sheds.  This 
last  winter  two  stable  fires  that  broke  out  in  the 
middle  of  the  night  routed  out  little  colonies  of 
boys,  who  slept  in  the  hay  (p.  257). 

"What  drove  the  outcast  boy  to  the  street? 
Drunkenness  and  brutality  at  home  helped  the 
tenement  to  do  it,  half  the  time.  It  drove  his 
sister  out  to  a  life  of  shame,  too,  as  likely  as  not. 
Four-fifths  of  the  homeless  children,  perhaps, 
are  outcasts,  the  rest  homeless  waifs  (p.  259). 

"A  bed  in  the  street,  in  an  old  box  or  corner,  is 
good  enough  for  the  ragamuffin  who  thinks  the 
latitude  of  his  tenement  unhealthy,  when  the 
weather  is  warm.  In  winter  the  boys  can  curl 
up  on  the  steam  pipes  in  the  newspaper  offices 
that  open  their  doors  after  midnight  on  secret 
purpose  to  let  them  in.  When  this  fails,  there 
is  still  the  lodging  house  as  a  last  resort  (p. 
260)." 

These  quotations  will  suffice  to  show  a  glimpse 
of  the  inferno  to  which  the  childhood  of  the  poor 
is  doomed. 

We  may  repeat  here  Tennyson's  words  in  his 
"Locksley  Hall  Sixty  Years  After"  : 

"Is  it  well,  that,  while  we  range  with  science,  glorying 

in  time, 
City  children  soak  and  blacken  soul  and  sense  in  city 

slime? 


70  AMERICAN    PAUPERISM. 

There,   among  the   glooming  alleys    Progress   halts  on 

palsied  feet, 
Crime  and  hunger  cast  our  maidens  by  the  thousands  on 

the  street. 
There   the   master   scrimps   his   haggard    seamstress   of 

her  daily  bread ; 
There   a   single   sordid   attic   holds   the   living  and  the 

dead. 
There   the   smoldering   fire   of   fever  creeps   across   the 

rotten  floor, 
And  the  crow.ded  couch  of  incest,  in  the  warrens  of  the 

poor." 

Is  it  well?  naive  question!  Is  it  natural,  is  it 
human,  is  it  economic  to  let  the  children  of  the 
poor  "soak  and  blacken  soul  and  sense  in  city 
slime  ?" 

In  its  solicitude  for  the  preservation  of  the 
various  living-  species,  nature  implanted  in  the 
heart  of  the  animal  the  instinct  of  affection  for 
offspring.  Even  the  most  ferocious  beasts  of 
prey,  the  tiger  and  the  lion,  are  endowed  with 
the  instinct  of  love  for  their  progeny.  The  higher 
an  animal  species  stands  on  the  ladder  of  evolu- 
tion, the  longer  is  his  period  of  helpless  infancy, 
the  better  the  care  given  it  during  that  period. 

That  the  instinct  of  attachment  to  offspring 
reaches  its  highest  stage  of  development  in  the 
human  race  is  only  natural.  "Child"  is  the  most 
pathetic  word  in  the  human  vocabulary.  The 
htmian  heart  does  not  know  any  more  endear- 
ing sight  than  that  of  an  infant  in  its  touching 
helplessness  and  perfect  abandon.  The  human 
heart  is  overflowing  with  tender  emotion  at  the 
contemplation  of  the  sweet  enigma  of  childhood. 
In  the  entire  material  world  there  is  nothing 
more  sacred,  pure  and  full  of  radiant  hope  than 
childhood  with  its  vast  possibilities  of  develop- 


THE  CHILDREN  OF  POVERTY.        7I 

ment  into  ideal  maturity.  Wliat  a  dismal  desert 
life  without  childhood  would  be!  What  is  a 
human  family  without  the  crowning  glory  of 
children?  Nothing  but  legalized  prostitution. 
The  development  of  human  society  from  a  herd 
of  half  brutes  and  savages  to  a  race  of  civilized 
and  cultured  beings  may  be  measured  by  the 
kind  and  degree  of  care  and  attention  it  bestows 
upon  its  offspring.  The  higher  a  nation  stands 
on  the  stage  of  culture  and  civilization,  the 
stronger  is  its  race-consciousness,  the  more  pro- 
nounced is  the  recognition  of  its  duty  towards 
future  generations,  the  more  emphatic  is  its  asser- 
tion of  the  rights  of  children  as  members  of 
society. 

In  our  present  commercial  age  of  civilization 
the  most  sacred  human  relations — the  family  re- 
lations— are  polluted  by  stupid  mercantile  con- 
siderations and  corroded  by  irrational  economic 
conditions.  The  matrimonial  market  is  a  tacitly 
recognized  economic  institution ;  in  the  same 
sense  as  the  board  of  trade — an  officially  sanc- 
tioned gambling  institution.  Pure  affection  be- 
tween the  representatives  of  different  sexes  at 
the  age  of  maturity  seldom  furnishes  the  basis 
of  family  life.  Imbeciles,  profligates  and  degen- 
erates may  get  the  sexual  commodity  called 
husband  or  wife  on  the  matrimonial  market  if 
they  happen  to  be  financially  well  situated  and 
can  pay  the  price.  The  fair  proletarian  maiden 
and  sturdy  youth  of  the  class  of  the  poor  can 
not  compete  with  the  man  with  the  coin  in  the 
matrimonial  market.  The  heaven  of  family  af- 
fection, the  raptures  of  a  child's  innocent 
caresses,  the  blessings  of  a  healthy  progeny,  are 
often  denied  them  on  the  world's  auction.     The 


72  AMERICAN    PAL'I'KKIS.M. 

fair  proletarian  maiden  is  cast  on  the  tliorny 
path  of  sexual  slavery  and  her  brother  is  driven 
to  sexual  profligacy.  Those  proletarians,  hov/- 
ever,  who  dare  to  defy  Mammon  and  his  priests 
and  marry  in  spite  of  all  economic  consideration 
are  by  the  existing  conditions  compelled  to  pay 
a  fearful  penalty,  as  we  have  convinced  our- 
selves, and  drag  their  children  along  into  pau- 
perism. Degrading,  grinding  want  and  misery, 
unhealthy  surroundings,  hopeless  struggle 
against  poverty,  brutalizes  the  proletarian  father 
and  mother,  turns  the  blessing  of  babyhood  and 
childhood  into  a  curse  and  perverts  the  instinct 
of  creative  love  into  its  destructive  opposite. 
Children  are  looked  upon  as  a  source  of  income 
and  doomed  to  the  fate  of  eternal  drudgery. 

The  exhausting  soul-killing  drudgery  of  physi- 
cal labor,  the  humiliation  of  poverty,  the  inse- 
curity of  means  of  livelihood,  with  its  endless 
anxieties  and  unceasing  cares,  weaken  the  physi- 
cal as  well  as  the  mental  powers  of  the  prole- 
tarian. 

The  waste  of  energy  and  ability  due  to  such 
conditions  is  beyond  all  calculations. 

The  Eleventh  Annual  Report  of  the  United 
States  Commissioners  of  Labor,  1895- 1896,  on 
work  and  wages  of  men,  women  and  children, 
contains  some  instructive  data,  throwing  light 
on  the  causes  of  child  and  v.'oman  labor.  The 
agents  of  the  department  secured  information 
from  1,067  establishments  of  various  kinds,  lo- 
cated in  30  different  States. 

The  rei-iort  makes  a  comparison  between  the 
data  of  the  period  1895- 1896  and  the  former 
period  ten  years  earlier: 

"The    increase   and    per   cent   of   increase   of 


THE    CIIILDREX    OF    POVERTY.  73 

persons  in  931  establishments  over  the  former 
period  were  as  foUows :  The  increase  of  male 
employes  18  }ears  of  age  and  over  amounted  to 
16,716,  or  63.1  per  cent,  while  the  female  em- 
ployes 18  years  of  age  or  over  increased  17,999, 
or  66.3  per  cent.  The  male  employes  under  18 
years  of  age  increased  3,365,  or  80.6  per  cent, 
and  the  female  emplo}es  under  18  years  of  age 
increased  6,008,  or  89.1  per  cent.  It  appears, 
therefore,  that  the  increase  of  female  and  child 
labor  was  quite  pronounced  in  comparison  with 
the  increase  of  adult  male  labor.  13.19  per  cent 
of  children  from  10  to  15  years  of  age  were  at 
work  at  the  time  of  the  census  of  1870.  At  the 
census  of  1880  the  proportion  of  children  from 

10  to  15  years  of  age  at  work  was  considerably 
larger,  being  16.82  per  cent.  The  whole  number 
of  children  from  10  to  14  years  of  age  in  1890 
was  7,033,509,  and  of  their  number  603,013,  or 
8.57  per  cent,  were  at  work.  The  total  number 
of  children  15  years  of  age  in  1890  was  1,288,- 
764,  but  to  arrive  at  the  number  of  those  who 
were  workers  in  that  year,  an  estimate  must  be 
made  on  the  basis  of  those  10  to  14  years  of  age 
who  were  at  work.  Now,  to  have  the  results  a 
general  average  of  8.57  per  cent  at  work  of  the 
ages  from  10  to  14,  it  is  plain  that  the  individual 
per  cent  for  each  of  these  ages  would  run  about 
like  this:     For  those  10  years  old,  3  per  cent; 

11  years  old,  5  per  cent;  12  years  old,  8  per  cent; 
13  years,  11.5  per  cent,  and  for  14  years,  15.5 
per  cent.  Such  an  estimate  of  the  percentage  at 
work  at  each  age  from  10  to  14  seems  to  be 
about  what  is  necessary  to  bring  the  general 
average  of  8.57  per  cent  at  work  when  all  from 
10  to  14  years  are  lumped  together.     From  this 


74  AMERICAN    PAUPERISM. 

it  is  manifest  that  of  those  15  years  old,  about 
20  per  cent,  or  2^'/,yy2)j  must  have  been  workers. 
Adding  this  to  603,013,  the  number  of  workers 
from  10  to  14  years,  the  result  is  860,786.  This 
number,  or  10.34  per  cent  of  the  whole  number 
of  children  lo  to  15  years  of  age  in  1890,  repre- 
sents very  closely  the  number  at  work.  (Report, 
pp.  25,  26.) 

In  connection  with  these  data  it  is  interesting 
to  note  that  out  of  781  instances  in  which  men 
and  women  work  at  the  same  occupation  and 
l^erform  their  work  with  the  same  degree  of 
efficiency  men  receive  greater  pay  in  595,  or 
76.2  per  cent,  of  the  instances,  and  in  7.3,  they 
receive  the  same  pay  for  the  same  work.  The 
men  received  32.3  per  cent  greater  pay  than  the 
women  in  the  595  cases  in  which  they  are  given 
greater  pay,  while  the  women  receive  but  10.4 
per  cent  greater  pay  in  the  129  instances  in  which' 
they  are  paid  higher  wages.  Out  of  the  228 
instances  in  which  men  and  children  (persons 
under  18  years  of  age)  work  at  the  same  occu- 
pation with  a  like  degree  of  efficiency,  men  re- 
ceive greater  pay  in  24,  or  10.5  per  cent,  while 
in  22  instances,  or  9.7  per  cent,  they  receive  the 
same  pay  for  the  same  work  performed  with 
the  same  degree  of  efficiency.  The  men  received 
56.6  per  cent  greater  pay  than  the  children  in 
the  182  instances  in  which  they  are  paid  more, 
while  the  children  receive  but  8.6  per  cent  greater 
pay  in  the  24  instances  in  which  they  are  paid 
higher  wages."     (Report,  p.  30.) 

The  increasing  perfection  of  the  tools  and 
methods  of  production,  along  with  the  minute 
subdivision  of  labor  and  co-operation  of  a  vast 
number  of  workers,  lead  to  the  replacement  of 


THE    CniLDKEX    OF    POVERTY.  75 

the  comparatively  expensive  labor  of  adult  male 
workers  by  women  and  children.  The  labor  of 
women  and  children  is  not  only  cheaper  than 
that  of  adult  male  workers,  but  has  in  the  eyes 
of  the  capitalist  another  great  advantage.  Women 
and  especially  cliildren  offer  a  great  deal  less 
resistance  to  the  exactions  of  their  exploiters. 

This  is  the  reason  why,  as  the  statistics  of  the 
labor  bureaus  of  different  States  testify^  the  em- 
ployment of  women  and  children  is  constantly 
increasing  in  the  United  States. 

About  the  work  of  women  we  will  treat  later, 
when  analyzing  the  causes  of  poverty. 

The  Second  Annual  Report  of  the  New  York 
Labor  Bureau,  devoted  entirely  to  an  investiga- 
tion of  child  labor,  was  summed  up  as  follows : 
"My  conclusions  are:  (i)  The  system  of  child 
labor  exists  in  the  State  of  New  York  in  its 
worst  form;  (2)  the  compulsory  education  law 
is  a  dead  letter ;  (3)  the  conditions  of  the  laborers 
is  of  a  low  standard." 

The  Commissioner  of  Labor  of  Ohio,  in  his 
report  for  1887  (p.  9),  says:  "My  attention  has 
been, frequently  called  to  the  alarming  growth  of 
women  and  child  labor  in  gainful  occupations. 
Children  are  crowded  into  workshops  at  the  age 
of  twelve ;  when  they  reach  manhood  they  are 
thrown  out  of  work  and  their  places  filled  with 
other  boys." 

The  inspector  of  factories  on  New  Jersey  says, 
in  his  second  annual  report  (p.  19)  :  "Our  ex- 
aminations show  that  there  are  thousands  of 
children  in  the  State  who  know  no  change  but 
from  the  workshop  to  bed  and  from  the  bed  to 
the  workshop." 

The  statistics  in  regard  to  the  employment  of 


76  AMIIRICAN    PAUPERISM. 

children,  as  given  by  the  census  of  1870,  are  as 
follows : 

Total  workers  of  all  classes  returned  12.505,- 
923- 

Of  these  were  children  10  to  15  years  of  age, 
739.164- 

Thus,  one  out  of  every  seventeen  employes  in 
the  United  States  engaged  in  any  gainful  occu- 
pation, was  a  child  under  15  years  of  age. 

In   the   tenth   census   the   statistics   show   the 
following  results : 
Total  number  of  workers  of  all  classes 

returned 17,392,099 

Of  these  were  children  10  to  15  years     1,118,356 

^  This  is  an  average  of  one  child  out  of  every 
sixteen  employes  in  the  United  States  engaged 
in  gainful  occupations. 

The  niimhcr  of  children  employed  in  other 
than  agricultural  pursuits  increased  during  the 
decade  of  1870-1880  sixty-six  per  cent,  while  the 
number  of  adults  increased  during  the  same 
period  only  forty-seven  per  cent.  (Willoughby 
— Child  Labor,  p.  30.) 

In  those  States  where  the  factory  system  has 
reached  the  highest  development  the  extension  of 
the  employment  of  children  was  extremely  rapid. 
(Crowell,  in  the  Andover  Review  of  Jply,''  1885.) 

In  cotton  mills  in  1880,  one  in  each  six  of  the 
employes  was  under  fifteen  years  of  age. 

In  mining  they  numbered  one  in  twenty.  In 
tobacco  one  in  twelve. 

The  children  toiling  in  sweatshops  escape  all 
control.  Helen  Campbell  estimates  that  in  New 
York  alone  24,000  children  under  fifteen  are 
-  mployed,  a  great  portion  of  which  are  in  tene- 


THE  CHILDREN  OF  POVERTY.        ^j 

ment  houses.  Mr.  Crowell,  in  the  cited  article, 
shows  the  employment  of  children  in  various 
States  and  industries  as  follows: 

In  Baltimore  the  ratio  of  children  to  all  other 
employes  in  the  cotton  mills  was  1 14.  In  Au- 
gusta, Ga.,  1 :3  ;  in  Alleghany,  Pa.,  i  4 ;  in  Brook- 
lyn, 1 :3 ;  in  Lancaster,  Pa.,  1 15,  and  in  Boston, 
12:17.  In  the  six  North  Atlantic  States,  in  225 
textile  factories  of  special  prominence,  seventeen 
per  cent  of  the  employes  are  children.  In  Penn- 
sylvania the  textile  industries  gave  work  to  5,300 
boys  oi  fifteen  years  and  under.  New  Jersey 
employed  fully  15,000  children  ranging  from 
eight  to  fifteen  years  of  age.  Paterson,  out  of 
a  working  population  of  20,000,  there  were  3,000 
children  at  work.  In  Rhode  Island  the  children 
composed  twelve  per  cent  of  the  whole  working 
population.  In  the  South  the  employment  of 
children  has  in  the  last  few  years  increased  rap- 
idly. In  North  Carolina  thirteen  per  cent  of  the 
cotton  factory  operatives  are  children  of  fifteen 
or  under. 

According  to  the  New  York  World,  modern 
industrial  conditions  have  increased  child  labor 
in  the  South  more  than  200  per  cent  in  a  single 
decade. 

The  percentage  of  the  cotton  factory  operatives 
in  Alabama  under  sixteen  years  of  age  is  greater 
than  in  any  other  State  of  the  Union;  nearly  30 
per  cent.  The  census  of  1900  show^s  in  our 
Southern  cotton  factories  24,459  children  under 
sixteen.  The  Tradesman  of  Chattanooga  (Aug. 
15)  estimates  that  inasmuch  as  the  number  of 
mills  has  doubled  at  the  South  since  the  period 
covered  by  the  census,  the  number  under  sixteen 
is  now  about  50,000.     If  the  number  of  children 


7^  AMERICAN    PAUPERISM. 

under  sixteen  has  thus  clouljled  in  four  years,  we 
may  assume  that  in  another  four  years  our  oper- 
atives under  sixteen  may  constitute  an  army  of 
100,000  souls.  What  will  be  the  total  in  ten 
years,  in  twenty? 

The  following  instances  contained  in  a  small 
pamphlet,  entitled  "Pictures  from  Life — Mill 
Children  in  Alabama,"  will  illustrate  the  condition 
of  child  labor  in  the  South : 

A  little  boy  of  six  years  has  been  working  12 
hours  a  day,  from  6:20  a.  m.  to  6:20  p.  m.  (40 
minutes  off  at  noon),  for  15  cents  per  day, 

"Three  boys  aged  respectively  9,  8  and  7  years. 
The  boy  aged  9  has  been  working  two  years,  the 
boy  aged  8  has  been  working  three  years ;  the 
boy  aged  7  years  has  been  working  two  years. 
These  little  fellows  work  13  hours  a  day,  from 
5:20  A.  M,  to  6:30  P.  M.,  with  twenty  minutes 
for  dinner.  In  "rush"  periods  their  mill  works 
tmtil  9:30  and  10  P.  M.  They  were  refused  a 
holiday  for  Thanksgiving  and  they  obtained 
Christmas  day  only  by  working  till  7  P.  M.  in 
order  to  make  up  the  time. 

"Two  girls,  aged  16  and  11 ;  each  has  had  the 
fingers  on  one  of  her  hands  maimed  by  the  ma- 
chinery, one  at  the  age  of  9  and  the  other  at  the 
age  of  8.  These  are  not  rare  cases.  Almost  all 
of  the  children  are  growing  up  in  total  illiteracy. 

The  factory  inspector  of  Chicago  reported  in 
1 88 1  4,600  boys  and  girls  of  fifteen  and  under 
in  the  factories  and  workshops.  In  1882  there 
were  found  6,900,  an  increase  of  sixty-eight  per 
cent,  while  there  was  an  increase  of  but  eighteen 
per  cent  during  the  same  year  in  the  male  labor- 
ers over  that  age. 

In  the  American  coal  fields  the  labor  of  chil- 


THE  CHILDREN  OF  POVERTY.        79 

dren  has  been  found  in  one  of  its  worst  forms. 
The  industrial  statistics  of  Pennsylvania  for  the 
year  1882- 1883  reported  87,000  employed  in  that 
industry,  of  whom  24,000  were  boys  and  four- 
fifteenths  15  years  of  age  and  under. 

The  number  of  boys  who  work  in  the  hard  coal 
mines  is  imperfectly  realized  in  the  rest  of  the 
United  States,  According  to  the  report  of  the 
Bureau  of  Mines  in  Pennsylvania  for  1901,  147,- 
651  persons  were  employed  "inside  and  outside 
the  mines  of  the  anthracite  region" ;  of  these 
19,564  were  classified  as  slate-pickers,  3,148  as 
door-boys  and  helpers,  and  10,894  as  drivers  and 
runners. 

"The  report  makes  no  classification  of  miners 
by  their  ages,  but  I  am  convinced  that  90  per  cent 
of  the  slate  pickers,  30  per  cent  of  the  drivers 
and  runners,  and  all  of  the  door  boys  and  helpers 
are  boys.  In  other  words,  a  total  of  24,023,  or 
nearly  one-sixth  of  all  the  employes  of  the  anthra- 
cite coal  mines,  are  children,"  says  Mr.  Frances 
H.  Nicols  in  McClure's  Magazine  for  February, 
1903. 

The  same  authority  says  that  the  legal  age 
limit  is  usually  falsified.  "While  the  miner's  boy 
is  working  in  the  breaker  or  the  mine  it  is  prob- 
able that  his  daughter  is  employed  in  a  mill  or 
factory,"  says  Mr.  Nicols. 

The  statistics  of  the  coal  counties  of  anthracite 
count  up  11,216  females  employed  in  them,  2,403 
between  twelve  and  sixteen  years  of  age. 

"The  perjury  certificate  prevails  for  the  girls  as 
well  as  the  boys,  and  I  estimate  that  90  per  cent 
of  the  11,216  females  are  girls  who  have  not 
reached  womanhood.  They  work  ten  hours  a 
day,  and  the  majority  stand  all  the  time,  having 


8o  AMERICAN    PAUPERISM. 

a  chance  to  sit  only  in  the  noon-hours.  This 
brings  a  characteristic  lameness  in  the  girls  dur- 
ing the  first  year  at  the  mill." 

The  report  of  the  Secretary  of  Internal  Affairs 
of  the  State  planes  the  average  daily  wages  of 
children  between  the  ages  of  thirteen  and  six- 
teen employed  in  the  manufacture  of  underwear 
at  forty-seven  cents,  in  hosiery  at  forty-six  cents. 

The  children  of  the  Coal  Shadow  submit  un- 
complainingly to  a  habitual  treatment  which  in  a 
country  like  China  would  be  considered  cruel 
and  intolerable. 

The  Children  of  the  Coal  Shadow  have  no 
child  life.  The  little  tots  are  sullen,  the  older 
children  fight ;  they  rarely  play,  and  almost  their 
only  amusement  is  the  union  and  the  strike.  That 
is  the  logical  result  of  the  condition  of  their 
existence.  They  liave  no  friends.  Their  parents, 
driven  by  what  they  think  is  necessity,  forswear 
them  into  bondage.  Their  employers,  compelled 
by  what  they  regard  as  economic  forces,  grind 
them  to  hatred.  The  State,  ruled  by  influence, 
either  refrains  from  ameliorating  laws  or  en- 
forcement.   The  rest  of  the  world  does  not  care. 

In  the  iron  and  steel  industry  the  census  of 
1880  shows  an  increase  of  boys  from  2,400  in 
1870  to  7,700  in  1880,  an  increase  of  216  per 
cent,  as  compared  with  an  increase  of  seventy- 
eight  per  cent  of  employes  over  sixteen  years  of 
age. 

The  following  extract  from  the  Second  Annual 
Report  of  the  New  York  Inspector  of  Factories 
and  Workshops  (1884,  p.  14)  is  very  interest- 
ing: 

"Large  numbers  of  children  have  been  exam- 
ined in  all  our  manufacturing  districts.    Almost 


THE   CIIILDRE>;    OF    POVERTY.  8l 

all  the  children  examined  were  between  the  ages 
of  twelve  and  fifteen.  The  average  age  at  which 
the  children  went  to  work  was  nine  years.  All 
of  them  had  been  accustomed  to  work  ten  hours 
a  day,  and  many  of  them  thirteen  and  more  hours 
a  day  through  overtime.  The  general  appear- 
ance of  those  children  is  noteworthy.  Children, 
who  had  been  set  to  work  at  an  early  age,  were, 
as  a  rule,  delicate,  puny  and  ignorant ;  they  know 
the  least,  having  forgotten  the  little  they  had 
been  taught  before  going  to  w^ork.  Children  of 
thirteen  years,  with  little  old  faces,  said  they  did 
not  care'  for  school  or  play."  The  same  report 
on  page  i8  states: 

"At  least  thirty  per  cent  could  not  name  the 
city  in  which  they  lived.  Sixty  per  cent  had 
never  heard  of  the  United  States  or  Europe,  and 
ninety-five  per  cent  had  never  heard  of  the  Revo- 
lutionary War.  Many  who  had  heard  of  the 
United  States  could  not  say  where  they  were." 
These  conditions  did  not  change  materially  in  the 
last  3'ears,  as  can  be  concluded  from  articles  like 
"Child  Life  vs.  Dividends,"  in  the  American  I^ed- 
erationist  for  May,  1902,  by  Irene  Asly-Mac- 
fadyen.  The  wages  of  children  sacrificed  on  the 
Altar  of  Mammon  are  ridiculously  small.  In 
1897  the  factory  inspectors  found  9,259  children 
employed  in  different  industrial  establishments. 
In  1 90 1  the  factory  inspectors  found  19,939  chil- 
dren at  work,  as  shown  in  their  reports.  The 
increase  was  greater  in  1901  than  in  any  previous 
year,  being  5,583  children. 

Illinois  permits  children  to  work  who  cannot 
read  in  any  language,  who  have  never  attended 
any  school.  There  is  no  educational  test  before 
beginning  to  work.    All  the  training  required  by 


82  AMERICAN    PAUPERISM. 

children  in  the  hibor  market  is  in  the  direction  of 
mechanical  and  brainless  routine.  The  factory 
child  can  develop  no  individuality,  and  promises, 
in  coming  maturity,  to  be  little  more  than  an  ad- 
dition to  the  mass  of  wretched,  unskilled  labor. 

Moreover,  many  occupations  threaten  actual 
disability  by  mutilation  and  disease.  In  the  manu- 
facture of  cigars,  both  girls  and  boys  are  em- 
ployed, and  the  saturation  of  the  children  with 
nicotine  is  only  a  question  of  time.  So  it  is  in 
other  respects  in  other  unhealthy  industries.  Of 
the  garment  workers  it  is  true  now  as  in  1894 
that  "many  of  the  boys  in  the  sweatshops  are 
button-holers  and  every  little  button-holer  is 
destined  soonor  or  later  to  develop  curvature  of 
the  spine.  Other  boys  run  foot  power  machines, 
and  the  fate  that  awaits  them  is  consumption  of 
the  lungs  or  intestines.  Many  of  the  little  girls 
are  "hand  girls,"  whose  backs  grovv^  crooked  over 
their  work  of  hemming  and  felling  or  sewing  on 
buttons. 

In  the  stamping  industry  children  are  often 
mutilated.  Work  in  the  laundries  entails  'ex- 
haustion from  heat  and  dampness,  and  long, 
irregular  hours  of  work.  The  proportion  of  blind 
or  partly  blind  children  in  glass  blowing  com- 
munities is  unusually  large.  Finally,  the  children 
work  in  the  excessive  heat  of  ovens  through  the 
night  and  go  half  clad,  weary  and  hungry,  out 
into  the  dawn  of  the  early  winter  morning. 

Illinois  permits  her  children  to  work  at  night, 
and  they  do  work  all  night  long  in  many  indus- 
tries in  which  men  and  children  are  needed  and 
where  night  work  is  carried  on  either  regularly  or 
occasionally. 

And  what  is  the  pittance?    At  a  liberal  csti- 


THE  CHILDREN  OF  POVERTY.        83 

mate  it  would  average  in  Chicago  $2.50  per  week, 
from  which  must  be  deducted  sixty  cents  for  car 
fare.  (See  pamphlet  on  child  labor  in  Illinois 
by  the  local  Federation  of  Women's  Club,  1902- 
1903,  pp.  6-1 1.) 

The  condition  of  working  children  in  New 
York  is  about  as  bad  as  those  in  Chicago  and 
Illinois,  as  can  be  readily  proved  by  extracts  from 
the  pamphlet  "Child  Labor,"'  published  by  the 
Child  Labor  Committee. 

This  century  of  legal  endeavor  has  fallen  far 
short  of  guaranteeing  to  poor  children  the  rights 
of  childhood — the  chance  to  be  happy,  the  chance 
to  develop  strong  minds  and  strong  bodies — the 
chance  to  grow  into  well-rounded  men  and 
women,  able  to  hold  their  own  in  life. 

Children  of  thirteen  and  tv/elve,  and  even  fewer 
years,  are  at  work  despite  the  most  faithful  efforts 
of  the  factory  inspectors.  Children  are  at  work 
for  inhumanely  long  hours  during  the  weeks  pre- 
ceding the  holiday  season. 

Children  are  regularly  em.ployed  for  long  hours 
before  and  after  school.  A  great  number  of 
child-W'Orkers,  newsboys,  bootblacks,  street  ped- 
dlers, office  boys,  delivery  boys,  messenger  boys, 
are  absolutely  without  any  legal  protection  what- 
ever. 

A  few  typical  cases,  no  v/orse  than  hundreds 
of  others  which  have  been  investigated  by  the 
Child  Labor  Committee,  will  give  an  idea  of  the 
hours,  of  the  vv^ages  and  the  conditions  of  work 
of  these  little  under-age  laborers. 

Peter  Basto  is  regularly  employed  in  a  button 
factory  to  sew  buttons  on  cards.  He  has  his 
(legal  age)  certificate,  though  he  is  but  thirteen 
years  old  and  though  he  is  only   four  feet  in 


84  -AMERICAX    PAUPERISM. 

height  and  conspicuously  undeveloped.  He  works 
six  days  in  the  week  from  seven-thirty  in  the 
morning  until  seven  o'clock  at  night,  with  an 
intermission  of  half  an  hour  at  noon.  In  return 
for  his  sixty-six  hours  of  work  each  week  he 
receives  a  wage  of  two  dollars  and  a  half. 
Thirteen-year-old  Jennie  Chianti  had  to  say  she 
was  fourteen  "to  get  her  certificate,"  according  to 
tlie  statement  of  her  sister  and  her  friend.  Every 
day  except  Sunday  she  works  from  eight  in  the 
morning  to  six  in  the  evening  in  a  factory  where 
she  helps  trim  dresses  for  other  children.  Her 
weekly  wage  is  two  dollars  and  a  half.  As  trim- 
ming is  not  a  lucrative  occupation,  on  Sundays 
and  in  the  evenings  she  makes  artificial  flowers 
for  a  near-by  manufacturer. 

Milly  Agricola  and  Mary  Pelota  both  work  in 
a  leggin  factory  from  seven-thirty  in  the  morning 
until  six  in  the  evening,  with  half  an  hour  for 
luncheon.  Each  is  thirteen  years  old  and  each 
receives  two  dollars  per  week. 

According  to  her  employment  certificate,  Ange- 
line  Peratti  is  fifteen  years  old,  but  her  actual  age 
is  twelve.  She  works  in  an  artificial  flower  fac- 
tory from  seven-thirty  in  the  morning  until  six 
in  the  evening.  In  the  evenings  she  helps  her 
mother  and  younger  sister  make  artificial  flowers 
at  home.  She  is  in  a  pitiful  physical  condition, 
being  subject  to  epileptic  fits  and  being  troubled 
with  a  weak  heart.  In  all  her  life  she  attended 
school  just  one  short  month. 

Public  School  No.  i8o  in  New  York  City  fur- 
nishes an  illustration  of  the  results  that  follow 
the  employment  of  children  during  vacation.  Out 
of  the  ninety  boys  who  were  in  this  school  when 
it  closed  in  June,  1902,  nineteen,  or  over  twenty 


THE   CHILDREN    OF    POVERTY.  85 

per  cent,  went  to  work  and  did  not  return  in 
September.  Of  the  nineteen,  eight  w^ere  not  four- 
teen when  they  began  work,  and  eleven  wei;e 
between  fourteen  and  fifteen.  None  of  them  were 
more  than  two  years  in  school. 

The  case  of  fourteen-year-old  Lena  Schwartz 
is  typical  of  a  great  number  of  children,  whose 
condition  is  even  worse  than  that  of  the  average 
of  the  child  laborers.  During  the  busy  season 
she  dips  candy  five  days  of  the  week  from  seven 
in  the  morning  until  nine  at  night,  and  on  the 
other  day  from  eight  till  nine,  with  thirty  min- 
utes for  luncheon  and  fifteen  minutes  for  supper. 
Her  aggregate  number  of  hours  for  the  week 
during  the  busy  season  is  seventy-eight  and  one- 
half.  She  has  weak  eyes,  the  result  of  previously 
working  late  into  the'  night  upon  artificial  flow- 
ers, and  round  shoulders "  and  a  hollow  chest, 
largely  due  to  the  exhausting  character  of  her 
present  occupation. 

Newsboys,  bootblacks,  peddlers,  office  boys, 
delivery  boys,  messenger  boys — these  can  work 
as  long  hours  as  they  or  their  employers  choose, 
and  all  day  and  night  in  cases — they  can  be  set 
at  work  at  any  age  that  suits  their  parents. 

Boys  eight  and  nine  years  have  been  found 
working  for  delivery  companies. 

Last  fall  twenty-five  boys  in  the  employ  of  one 
of  the  delivery  companies  went  out  on  a  strike. 
Several  of  these  boys  were  under  fourteen— the 
leader  was  thirteen. '  They  said  they  worked  four 
days  in  the  week  from  seven-thirty  in  the  miorn- 
ing  until  nine  or  ten  at  night  and  on  Fridays  and 
Saturdays  until  midnight  or  until  one  o'clock  -n 
the  morning.  If  the  packages  were  not  delivered 
on  Saturday  night  they  v/orked   Sundays  until 


86  AMERICAX    PAUPERISM. 

they  were  delivered.  \"isits  were  made  to  the 
homes  of  these  boys  and  their  parents  and  former 
teachers  were  questioned.  In  all  essential  par- 
ticulars the  stories  of  the  boys  were  substantiated. 

During  the  holiday  season  there  is  practically 
no  limit  to  the  number  of  hours  that  may  be 
demanded  of  the  bo}-s  working  as  messengers. 
The  present  investigation  has  discovered  cases  of 
messengers  being  on  duty  continuously  for 
twenty,  thirty,  thirt3'-two,  forty  and  even  seventy- 
two  hours.  The  only  rest  during  these  long 
periods  were  snatches  of  sleep  taken  between 
messages  on  the  wooden  benches  in  the  office. 
Some  of  these  boys  were  only  fourteen,  and  sev- 
eral were  even  younger. 

Such  is  their  "start  in  life" — messenger  boy, 
delivery  boy,  after-school  worker,  factory  child. 
With  such  a  start,  such  a  present,  what  can  their 
future  be  ? 

The  children  of  the  toiling  masses  are  kept  out 
of  school  in  order  to  be  sacrificed  to  the  Molloch 
of  profit-making  Capitalism.  Child  labor  and 
starvation  wages  condition  each  other. 

We  take  the  liberty  to  quote  here  from  our 
book,  "The  Passing  of  Capitalism" : 

According  to  Dr.  Folkmar,  of  all  the  children 
in  Chicago  and  Milwaukee  that  enter  the  pu1)lic 
school,  (i)  about  one-third  go  no  further  than 
the  first  grade:  (2)  about  one-half  go  no  further 
than  the  second  grade;  (3)  about  two-thirds  go 
no  further  than  the  third  grade ;  (4)  about  three- 
fourths  go  no  further  than  the  fourth  grade;  (5) 
about  nine-tenths  go  only  half  way  through  the 
twelve  grades;  (6)  about  ninety-seven  in  every 
hundred  drop  out  before  reaching  the  high 
school;   (7)  only  tlircc  in  every  thousand  fijaish 


THE    CHILDREN    OF    POVERTY.  87 

the  entire  course.  Or  more  exactly,  the  following 
per  cent  drops  out  of  each  grade:  Grade  I,  32 
per  cent;  II,  51  per  cent;  III,  66  per  cent;  IV, 
78  per  cent;  V,  86  per  cent;  VII,  95  per  cent; 
VIII,  97  per  cent;  IX,  98  per  cent;  X,  99  per 
cent;  XI,  99.7  per  cent. 

Ex-superintendent  C.  L.  T.  Smart  of  the  State 
of  Ohio  states  that  only  about  3  per  cent  of  the 
pupils  enrolled  in  the  public  schools  ever  enter, 
and  from  them  less  than  i  per  cent  graduate ;  50 
per  cent  of  the  youths  enrolled  in  the  public 
schools  of  the  State  do  not  attend  school  more 
than  four  years  ;  75  per  cent  stop  attending  school 
before  entering  the  eighth  grade.  Dr.  Wm.  Har- 
ris, United  States  Commissioner  of  Education, 
says  in  his  report  to  the  Committee  of  Fifteen: 
"The  average  number  of  pupils  of  the  St.  Louis 
school  in  the  lowest  three  years  of  the  course 
was  about  ^2  per  cent  of  the  entire  number  en- 
rolled. Nearly  three-fourths  of  all  the  pupils  of 
the  public  schools  are  in  the  studies  of  the  first 
three  years  or  in  primary  studies.  Six-sevenths 
of  the  population  of  the  United  States,  on  arriv- 
ing at  the  proper  age  for  the  secondary  education, 
never  receive  it.  Thirty  out  of  thirty-one  fail  to 
receive  higher  education  upon  arriving  at  the 
proper  age.  The  question  now  arises :  What  is 
the  main  cause  of  this  remarkably  short  duration 
of  school  attendance?  Mr.  C.  L.  Smart  says: 
"A  majority  of  the  patrons  of  the  public  schools 
cannot  do  without  the  labor  of  their  children, 
and  therefore  cannot  give  them  time  to  attend 
school  longer."  Dr.  D.  Folkman  says:  "I  answer 
without  hesitation  that  the  chief  factors  are 
economic  conditions.  Too  many  either  cannot 
support  their  children  as  they  desire,  or  cannot 


88 


AMERICAN    PAUPERISM. 


Spare  them  through  a  longer  period  of  school- 
ing." 

UNITED  STATES  CENSUS  1900. 

(Population,  Vol.  11,  Part  II,  Table  65,  p.  422.) 

Illiterate    Children    Between    the    Ages    of    10    and    14 

Years  in  Each  State. 


Alabama    66,072  i. 

Alaska    1,903  2. 

Arizona    2,592  3. 

Arkansas    26,972  4. 

California    1,279  5- 

Colorado    742  6. 

Connecticut     436  7- 

Delaware     845  8. 

District  of  Columbia     398  9- 

Florida    8,389  10. 

Georgia    63,329  n. 

Hawaii    394  12. 

Idaho    209  13. 

Illinois     4,044  14- 

Indiana     i,453  IS- 

Indian   Territory    ..12,172  16. 

Iowa    883  17. 

Kansas    -•      878  18. 

Kentucky    21,247  ig. 

Louisiana    55,691  20. 

Maine    1,255  21. 

Maryland     5,859  22. 

Massachusetts    1,547  23. 

Michigan    i,744  24. 

Minnesota    1.365  25. 

Mississippi    44,334  26. 

Missouri    11,660  27. 

^Montana    374  28. 

Nebraska    412  29. 

Nevada    275  30. 

New  Hampshire  .  . .      557  31. 

New  Jersey   2,069  3-- 

New  Mexico   4.354  33- 

New  York   4,740  34- 

North  Carolina  ....51,190  35. 


Wyoming   

Oregon    

Idaho    

Utah    

Nevada    

Vermont    

Washington    .  .. 

Montana    

Hawaii    

District  of  Co- 
lumbia   .... 

Nebraska    .  . 

Connecticut    .  . . 

South    Dakota.. 

New  H  a  m  p  - 
shire    

Rhode    Island.. 

Colorado    

North   Dakota.. 

Delaware    

Kansas    

Iowa    

Maine    

California    

Oklahoma    .... 

Minnesota    .... 

Indiana    

Afassachusctfs    . 

Wisconsin    .... 

Michigan    

Ala.ska    

Ohio    

A^C7U  Jersey  . .  . 

Arizona    

Illinois    

New  Mexico  . . 

New    York 


72 

175 
209 
220 
275 
287 
340 
374 
394 

398 
412 
436 
472 

557 
691 

742 
836 
845 
878 
883 

1,255 
1,279 

1,295 
1.365 
1,453 
1,547 
1,688 
1,744 
1,903 
2,048 
2.o6g 
2,592 
4.044 
4,354 
4,740 


THE  CHILDREN  OF  POVERTY. 


89 


North   Dakota    836 

Ohio    2,048 

Oklahoma    1,295 

Oregon    175 

Pennsylvania    6,326 

Rhode  Island 6gi 

South  Carolina   ....51,536 

South  Dakota   472 

Tennessee   36,375 

Texas    35.491 

Utah 220 

Vermont    287 

Virginia     287 

Washington    340 

West  Virginia  5,819 

Wisconsin   1,688 

Wyoming   72 


36. 
Z7- 
38. 
39- 
40. 
41. 

42. 

43- 
44. 

45- 
46. 

47. 
48. 

49- 
50. 
51. 
52. 


West    Virginia. 

Maryland    

Pouisylvania    ., 

Florida    

Missouri    

Indian  Terri 

tory    

Kentucky    

Arkansas    

Virginia    

Texas   

Tennessee   

Mississippi  ..  . . 
North  Carolina 
South  Carolina 
Louisiana    . .  . .  , 

Georgia    - 

Alabama    


5.819 
5-859 
6,326 
8,389 
ii,6Co 

12,172 
21,247 
26,972 
34,612 
35.491 
36,375 
44,334 
51,190 
51,536 
55,691 
63,329 
66,072 


United    States. .  .579,947      The  United  States. 579,947 

The  column  at  the  left  is  exactly  as  taken  from 
the  census.  The  column  at  the  right  is  the  same 
material  arranged  with  the  States  in  the  order 
of  the  illiteracy  of  the  children,  those  States 
which  have  the  least  number  of  illiterate  children 
appearing  at  the  top  of  the  column  and  those 
having  the  largest  number  of  illiterate  children 
appearing  at  the  bottom. 

Commenting  on  these  figures,  the  Fourth.  An- 
nual Report  of  the  National  Consumers  League 
states  as  follows : 

"A  significant  point  in  the  table  is  the  appear- 
ance, in  the  topmost  group,  of  the  States  of  the 
agricultural  Northwest  where  manufacture  and 
commerce  have  not  yet  reached  a  high  degree  of 
development.  In  these  States  and  in  Connecticut, 
Vermont,  the  Hav.-aiian  Islands  and  the  District 
of  Columbia,  the  number  of  illiterate  children  be- 
tween ten  and  fourteen  years  of  age  now  reached 


90  AMERICAN    PAUPERISM. 

five  hundred.  Particularly  interesting  is  the  fact 
that  Wyominof,  which  heads  the  list  with  only 
seventy-two  illiterate  children,  has  long  main- 
tained traveling  teachers  to  instruct  children  on 
remote  ranches. 

Another  significant  point  in  the  table  is  the 
appearance  in  the  third  group,  nearer  the  bottom 
of  the  scale  of  the  States  than  the  top,  of  all  the 
six  great  manufacturing  States,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  Massachusetts,  \\nien  graded  according 
to  the  value  of  their  manufactured  products,  these 
States  rank  in  the  following  order :  New  York, 
Pennsylvania,  Illinois,  ]\Iassachusetts,  Ohio  and 
New  Jersey.  But  when  graded  according  to  the 
numbers  of  their  illiterate  children  between  the 
ages  of  ten  and  fourteen  years,  they  rank  as 
follows : 


Massachusetts    1.547 

Ohio   2,048 

New  Jersey  2,069 

Illinois   4,044 

New  York  4740 

Pennsylvania    6,326 


Total 20,770" 

At  a  congress  of  the  State  Federation  of  Labor 
of  New  Jersey,  held  in  Trenton,  a  resolution  was 
passed  calling  upon  the  Governor  to  remove  the 
State  factory  inspector  for  failure  to  abolish  child 
labor.  The  inspector  was  called  before  the  con- 
gress and  practically  admitted  that  child  labor 
existed  in  New  Jersey,  but  that  he  was  powerless 
to  stop  it. 

There  are  several  places  in  New  Jersey  where 
child  slavery,  in  one  form  or  another,  exists,  but 
nowhere  is  the  law  so  flagrantly  violated  as  in 


THE    CHILDREN    OF    POVERTY.  QI 

Patterson.  There  the  Httle  white  slaves  endure 
an  existence  that  is  as  hopeless  and  as  dismal  as 
that  of  any  child  in  the  coal  breakers  or  knitting 
mills  of  Pennsylvania. 

There  is  a  constant  disposition  on  the  part  of 
the  mill  owners  to  supplant  the  labor  of  men  and 
adult  women  with  young  girls  and  with  children. 
Women  in  Patterson  are  paid  from  seven  to  ten 
dollars  a  week.  This  is  considerably  less  than 
is  paid  to  men ;  but  children  can  be  hired  for  less 
than  either.  And  so  the  child  came  to  be  a  factor 
in  the  mill  life  of  Patterson. 

In  one  factory  not  one  mo,ce  than  a  quarter  of 
the  employes  were  men,  the  rest  were  all  women 
and  girls,  and  of  the  latter  fully  one  hundred  did 
not  seem  to  be  over  eleven  years  of  age. 

"There  are  three  flax  mills  in  Patterson  that 
give  employment  to  about  two  thousand  hands. 
According  to  factory  reports,  only  one  hundred 
of  these  are  less  than  sixteen  years  old.  Near  the 
flax  mills  is  the  tenement  quarter  of  Patterson. 
Few  of  the  families  have  more  than  two  rooms 
and  many  of  them  possess  only  one.  In  the 
evenings  and  on  Sundays  the  neighborhood 
swarms  with  children,  but  from  seven  o'clock  in 
the  morning  until  six  in  the  evening  on  every 
week  day  the  noise  of  their  laughter  and  play  is 
not  heard  in  this  part  of  Patterson.  With  care- 
worn, pale  faces  the  children  form  a  sort  of  a 
melancholy  procession  which  'comes  home' 
from  the  mill  at  evening.  Some  of  them  may  be 
fourteen  years  old.  If  they  are  they  have  al- 
ready lived  four  or  five  years  in  the  factory.  But 
by  far  the  greater  number  are  certainly  not  over 
eleven. 

"From  the  lips  of  men  and  women  whose  lives 


92  AMERICAN    PAUPERISM. 

are  spent  behind  tlie  dull  brick  walls  of  the  fac- 
tories the  following  is  known  about  the  work  of 
the  children  there: 

"Part  of  the  process  of  weaving  flax  consists 
in  hemp  steaming.  In  a  room  with  a  stone  and 
cement  floor  the  coils  of  flax  are  wrung  out  in 
hot  water  to  make  it  pliable  for  weaving.  This 
work  is  performed  entirely  by  females,  many  of 
whom  are  little  girls.  With  bare  feet  and  cov- 
ered with  rubber  aprons  they  spend  what  should 
be  the  happy  days  of  childhood  in  a  room  filled 
with  clouds  of  steam,  twisting  the  wet  hemp 
coils. 

"The  pay  of  the  little  girls  in  either  a  silk  or 
hemp  factory  is  about  the  same.  When  a  girl 
enters  the  mill  she  receives  about  $1.25  a  week. 
In  the  course  of  two  or  three  years  her  pay  is 
gradually  increased  until  by  the  time  she  is 
fifteen  years  old  she  makes  perhaps  $2.50  or 
$3.00  a  week.  This  sum  constitutes  her  wages 
for  several  years,  until  she  is  old  and  experienced 
enough  to  'learn  the  trade'  of  a  weaver.  In  the 
flax  mills  her  remuneration  for  the  work  is  very 
rarely  more  than  $8.00  a  week ;  in  the  silk  mills 
it  is  sometimes  as  high  as  $12.00. 

"In  certain  districts  of  the  city  there  are  no 
longer  any  little  girls,  there  are  only  middle  aged 
women,  and  women  too  old  to  work.  And  yet 
it  would  be  a  cruelty  and  injustice  to  lay  the 
blame  for  the  child  labor  evil  at  the  door  of  the 
parents.  Among  the  adult  workers  in  the  flax 
mills  it  is  very  exceptional  to  find  one  who  makes 
more  than  $8.00  a  week.  This  is  not  enough  to 
support  a  family.  The  only  recourse  for  parents 
is  to  send  their  little  girls  to  the  mill."  (Francis 
H.  Nickols  in  the  Christian  Herald,  September 
3,  1903) 


PENNSYLVANIA  CHILD  LABOR. 
(Special  correspondence  of  the  Evening  Post.) 

"Scranton,  Pa.,  February  lo,  1903 —The 
crusade  against  child  labor  began  with  the  intro- 
duction of  a  group  of  silk-mill  children  as  wit- 
nesses before  the  Anthracite  Coal  Strike  Com- 
mission, then  sitting  at  Scranton,  Pa.  Un- 
dreamed-of conditions  were  laid  bare;  public 
indignation  rose  to  white  heat;  press  and  pulpit 
joined  in  giving  publicity  to  the  facts,  and  from 
many  quarters  came  demands  for  immediate  leg- 
islation which  would  do  away  with  at  least  the 
grosser  evils.  The  United  Mine  Workers  and  the 
anthracite  coal  operators  joined  in  preparing  a 
bill  for  Pennsylvania. 

The  storv  of  this  campaign  in  Pennsylvania  is 
full  of  interest.  "We  actually  find  the  flesh  and 
blood  of  little  girls  coined  into  money,"  exclaimed 
Judge  Grey,  as  the  children  stood  before  the 
Commission.  "This  matter  of  night  labor  by 
young  girls,"  he  continued,  "should  be  made 
known  in  every  part  of  Pennsylvania."  This 
work  has  been  done.  It  only  remains  for  the  leg- 
islators to  make  good  the  laws  which  have  this 
week  been  sent  to  them. 

To-day  efforts  to  rescue  little  children  from 
sodden  toil  which  robs  them  of  their  childhood 
and  does  violence  to  the  unborn  children  of  other 
generations  are  met  with  open  threats.  When  the 
cry  was  first  raised  against  the  iniquitous  regime 
in  Pennsylvania,  the  superintendent  of  one  large 

93 


94  AMERICAN    PAUPERISM. 

mill  publicly  asserted:  "One  thing  is  certain — 
tinkering  with  existing  conditions  will  drive  the 
silk  mills  out  of  Penns}lvania  to  States  where 
labor  conditions  arc  satisfactory.  As  matters 
stand,  Pennsylvania  has  a  lower  age  limit  than 
any  of  her  neighbors,  and  that  fact  is  responsible 
for  much  of  the  prosperity  of  the  State.  If  the 
age  limit  be  raised,  even  though  the  raise  be  only 
one  year,  the  factories  will  go  elsewhere." 

There  have  been  breathless  m.oments  at  the 
hearings  of  the  Strike  Commission,  but  none  so 
intense  as  when  eleven-year-old  Helen  Sisscak 
and  Theresa  McDermott  and  Rosa  Zinka  sat  in 
the  witness  chair  and  told  the  story  of  their  lives. 
Every  one  of  the  seven  Commissioners  rose  to 
his  feet  and  strained  towards  the  children.  The 
crowded  courtroom  became  as  still  as  a  summer 
night ;  not  a  dress  rustled,  not  a  foot  scraped ; 
the  childish  voices  were  heard  in  every  corner. 
Chairman  Grey  asked  most  of  the  questions.  The 
children  spoke  simply  and  frankly,  as  children 
will,  much  puzzled  as  to  wdiy  so  many  people 
were  interested  in  them.  They  did  not  know  that 
seventeen  thousand  little  girls  under  sixteen  years 
of  age  w'ho  toil  in  the  great  silk  mills  and  lace 
factories  of  central  Pennsylvania  were  speaking 
through  them.  When  they  told  of  leaving  their 
homes  to  report  at  the  factory  at  half-past  six, 
and  of  spending  the  long  hours  of  the  night  until 
half-past  six  in  the  morning,  w^hen,  tired  and  lialf 
asleep,  they  dragged  back  across  the  fields  or 
through  the  streets  of  the  scattered  town  to  their 
beds,  they  did  not  realize  that  their  words  meant 
the  emancipation  of  nearly  four  thousand  child 
w^orkers  from  night  labor. 

Since  then  I  have  visited  the  homes  of  these 


y 


PliXXSVLVANIA    CHILD    LABOR.  95 

children  and  many  others  besides.  Some  of  the 
Uttle  toilers  get  five  cents  an  hour,  others  three, 
for  the  work. 

"Why  do  you  allow  your  little  chiUj  to  do 
this?"  I  asked  of  one  father. 

He  glared  at  me  a  moment,  then  answered 
laconically : 

"It  means  bread  money." 

The  man  was  a  miner.  I  put  the  same  question 
to  the  mother  of  another. 

She  answered  never  a  word,  but  handed  me  her 
store  book. 

It  needed  only  a  cursory  examination  to  see 
that  there  were  few  extravagances  in  that  house- 
hold. Then,  as  I  glanced  round  the  bare  kitchen 
and  through  a  doorway  into  the  bedroom  beyond, 
further  questioning  would  have  seemed  mockery. 
The  house  was  old  and  unpainted.  The  homes 
of  these  girls  are  often  two  and  three  miles  from 
the  mills,  and  children  are  obliged  to  walk  in  all 
kinds  of  weather.  A  number  of  children  were 
found  who  allow  an  hour  to  reach  the  mill. 
Twelve  hours  of  work  and  two  hours  walking 
would  leave  a  strong  man  but  little  energy. 

CONDITIONS  IN  THE  FACTORIES. 

The  first  of  the  silk  factories  that  I  saw  was 
near  Scranton.  It  was  built  near  the  Susque- 
hanna River,  on  a  knoll  of  the  Blue  Ridge  Moun- 
tains. In  the  clear  atmosphere  of  a  dark  night 
its  blaze  of  lighted  windows  shone  like  an  acre  of 
the  starry  heavens  brought  low  and  thrown  be- 
fore the  shadowy  mountains.  When  the  heavy 
door  had  been  opened  to  my  call  and  closed  again 
behind  me,  the  clatter  and  din  were  deafening. 


96  AMF.RICAN    PAUPI:RISM. 

A  hazel-eyed  cliild  in  a  dirty   red   waist   flitted 
past  nie.    I  stopped  her  to  ask  her  age. 

"Eleven  past,"  she  replied. 

"How  long  have  you  worked  in  the  mill?" 

"A  year  past,"  she  answered  promptly  and 
went  on. 

A  small  boy  was  cleaning  bobbins  close  to  the 
nearest  rattling  loom.  He  told  me  he  was  four- 
teen. I  should  have  guessed  eleven.  He  had 
been  three  years  in  the  mill.  A  surprised  feature 
of  this  work  is  that  the  shifts  are  not  alternated. 
The  day-shift  children  are  always  on  the  day- 
shift,  and  the  night-shift  ones  are  always  on 
the  night-shift.  The  work  is  not  heavy.  It  is 
as  continuous  as  machine  work.  Constant  vigi- 
lance is  necessary.  The  fine  silk  fibers  snap  easily 
and  must  be  quickly  tied. 

"The  tangles  are  always  worst  when  I  am 
tiredest,"  said  one  small  girl.  "I  have  to  twist 
back  the  reel  for  a  long  time  until  all  the  tangles 
are  gone.  The  big  girl  who  had  charge  of  our 
department  often  scolded  me,  and  sometimes  the 
man  who  was  night  superintendent  told  me  he 
would  discharge  me  if  I  couldn't  do  better.  Then 
my  head  would  ache  something  awful,  and  I 
would  have  to  cry,  and  some  other  girl  would 
straighten  out  the  tangle." 

Another,  who  had  just  been  taken  out  of  the 
mill,  said  to  a  friend  of  mine  who  made  a  note  of 
her  words :  "When  I  first  went  to  work  at  night 
the  long  standing  hurt  me  very  much.  My  feet 
burned  so  that  I  cried.  My  knees  hurt  me  worse 
than  my  feet,  and  my  back  pained  all  the  time. 
Alother  cried  v/hen  I  told  her  how  I  suffered,, 
and  that  made  m.e  feel  so  badly  that  I  did  not 
tell  her  anv  more.     It  does  not  hurt  so  much 


l'liNNSVL\AXIA    CHILD    LAP.OR.  97 

now,  but  I  feel  tired  all  the  time.  I  do  not  feel 
near  as  tired,  though,  as  I  did  the  time  I  worked 
all  night.  My  eyes  hurt  me,  too,  from  watching 
the  threads  at  night.  The  doctor  said  they  would 
be  ruined  if  I  did  not  stop  the  night  work.  After 
watching  the  threads  a  long  time,  I  could  see 
threads  everywhere.  When  I  looked  at  other 
things,  there  were  threads  running  across  them. 
Sometimes  I  felt  as  though  the  threads  were  cut- 
ting my   eyes." 

.  All  physical  ailments  are  naturally  found 
among  these  children,  especially  nervous  diseases, 
brought  on  through  enforced  wakefulness  and 
the  unnatural  system  of  life.  Throat  and  lung 
troubles  are  frequent,  and  anaemia  is  as  common 
as  is  miner's  asthma  among  the  miners.  Heart 
affections  and  stomach  disorders  are  common. 
The  tendency  is  always  to  devitalize  the  children, 
stunting  their  growth,  and  so  weaken  their  pow- 
ers of  resistance  as  to  leave  them  easy  prey  for 
disease  of  every  order. 

But  this  is  not  the  saddest  feature  of  night 
labor.  There  are  phases  to  this  question  too 
terrible  to  describe.  In  the  warm  months  of 
spring,  summer  and  autumn,  during  the  half  hour 
in  the  middle  of  the  night  which  is  allowed  for 
refreshments,  the  children  are  encouraged  to  leave 
the  factory  and  spend  the  time  in  the  outside  air. 
In  most  instances  the  silk  mills  and  lace  factories 
of  Pennsylvania  are  somewhat  isolated  from  the 
villages  and  towns.  They  occupy  lonely  sites  on 
the  edge  of  the  mountains  or  near  river  banks. 
The  children  leave  the  heated  atmosphere  of  the 
factory  rooms  and  run  among  the  trees  or  across 
the  fields.  One  or  two  men  are  supposed  to 
watch  over  them,  but  under  cover  of  the  night 


(j8  A^[ERICAN    PAUPERISM. 

tlieir  vision  is  short.  Those  who  shoukl  know, 
the  poHce,  justices  of  the  peace,  and  investigators, 
say  that  immoral  loafers  and  strange  men  lurk 
around  these  mills.  In  every  factory  there  are 
girls  who  are  older  whose  influence  is  not  the 
best. 

NIGHT    W^ORK. 

According  to  the  State  factory  inspector,  there 
are  something  over  17,000  girls  between  the  ages 
of  thirteen  and  sixteen  who  work  in  manufactur- 
ing establishments  of  the  State.  Of  this  number 
approximately  4,000  work  all  night  in  the  textile 
mills,  and  it  was  estimated  at  the  beginning  of 
this  investigation  that  nearly  fifty  per  cent  of 
these  are  under  thirteen  years  of  age.  A  promi- 
nent Scranton  lawyer  is  responsible  for  the  state- 
ment that  "more  than  one-half  of  the  children 
who  work  all  night  in  the  textile  mills  are  under 
the  statutory  age.  Fully  75  per  cent  of  all  the 
girls  who  do  night  work  are  under  fifteen  years." 
The  legal  age  in  Pennsylvania  is  thirteen,  but, 
as  Judge  Gray  took  occasion  to  remark,  some  of 
the  State  laws  are  but  dead  letters  in  the  anthra- 
cite regions.  In  one  week  following  the  disclos- 
ures before  the  Commission  over  two  hundred 
children  were  removed  by -a  single  inspector. 

Child  labor  seems  to  be  largely  m  demand. 
Prosperity  means  an  increased  market  for  silk 
and  laces.  "Girls  wanted"  is  found  on  signs 
tacked  to  the  factory  doors.  This  tends  to  make 
the  employers  careless  in  scrutinizing  the  age  cer- 
tificates. Every  child  has  to  produce  a  certificate 
which  purports  to  show  that  she  is  at  least 
thirteen  years  old.     If  the  parent,  or  even  the 


PExXNSVLVAMA    CHILD    LAliOR.  99 

child  herself,  makes  out  this  certificate  it  covers 
the  letter  of  the  law  and  relieves  the  responsible 
ones  of  legal  responsibility. 

The  root  of  the  question  lies  in  the  incentive 
which  prompts  a  misstatement.  The  first  cause 
is  poverty. 

There  are  about  seventeen  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  children  between  the  ages  of  ten  and 
fifteen  years  employed  in  the  mines  and  factories 
of  the  United  States,  according  to  Mr.  Waudby. 

"The  alarming  rapidity  of  the  increase  of  this 
traffic  in  human  flesh  and  blood  has  been  so 
insidious  as  to  have,  like  the  rising  tide  of  the 
sea,  engulfed  us  before  we  discovered  it.  Child 
labor  of  the  past  and  child  labor  of  the  present 
are  two  different  problems.  In  the  first  instance 
the  child  was  not  considered  as  a  'wage  earner,' 
but  was  sent  into  the  mills,  the  mines  and  the 
factories,  for  the  purpose  of  learning  a  trade. 
Now-a-days  he  is  sent  into  these  hives  of  in- 
dustry to  become  an  integral  part  of  a  machine 
and  as  such  is  looked  upon  with  no  personal  re- 
gard whatever.  His  employer  has  no  interest  in 
his  welfare  beyond  what  his  productive  capacity 
will  bring  forth.  The  factories,  the  mines,  the 
work  shop  and  the  great  mercantile  establish- 
ments of  our  country  teem  with  the  labor  of  chil- 
dren. The  report  of  the  census  office  for  the 
year  1900,  when  issued,  will  show  that  for  the 
mainland  of  the  United  States,  excluding  Alaska 
and  Hawaii,  there  were,  approximately,  one  mil- 
lion seven  hundred  fifty  thousand  persons  from 
ten  to  fifteen  years  of  age,  inclusive,  reported  as 
engaged  in  gainful  occupations. 

Hundreds  of  thousands  of  little  children  are 
being  defrauded  of  their  American  heritage — the 


lOO  AMERICAN    PAUPERISM. 

right  to  a  liberal  education — by  being  compelled 
to  work  in  the  mills,  the  mines  and  the  work 
shops,  thus  being  stunted  in  body  as  well  as  in 
mind! 

Accidents  to  the  boy  mine  workers,  who  claim 
about  eight  cents  an  hour,  are  of  daily  occurrence, 
and  many  of  them  are  of  a  fatal  nature. 

At  Scranton,  last  November,  Charles  Bie- 
berich,  a  fourteen-year-old  boy,  was  killed  in  the 
Gibbon  breaker,  and,  before  the  machinery  could 
be  stopped,  the  body  was  horribly  mangled. 

In  the  cotton  and  woolen  mills  of  North  Caro- 
lina 3,857  boys  and  4,139  girls  under  fourteen 
years  of  age  work  from  ten  to  over  twelve  hours 
per  day. 

Over  a  thousand  children  between  the  ages  of 
six  and  fourteen  are  employed  in  fine  cotton 
mills  which  stand  within  a  mile  of  the  State  Capi- 
tol of  South  Carolina. 

More  than  a  thousand  children  are  kept  at 
work  in  the  coal  cellars  of  New  York."  (Wil- 
liam S.  Waudby,  Special  Agent  U.  S.  Depart- 
ment of  Labor,  in  Frank  Leslie's  Popular 
Monthly  for  April,  1903.) 

Child  labor  in  the  textile  mills  in  the  South 
is  reduplicated  not  only  in  other  industries  in 
the  South,  but  in  the  Middle  States,  and  in  more 
than  one  Northern  State,  notwithstanding  many 
years  of  child  labor  legislation. 

Child  labor  in  the  North  is  employed  to  a  very 
much  greater  extent  than  in  the  South.  Besides 
the  thirteen  thousand  children  under  sixteen  em- 
ployed in  the  factories  of  New  York,  there  are 
thousands  in  the  stores,  thousands  on  the  streets, 
and  other  thousands  scattered  throughout  the 
offices  of  the  citv.     Child  labor    has    assumed 


PENNSYLVANIA    CHILD    LABOR.  lOI 

stupendous  proportions.  Children  arc  deformed, 
maimed,  weakened,  and  made  diseased  for  life  in 
many  of  the  trades  flourishing-  in  every  industrial 
community.  In  the  IMinnesota  Bureau  of  Labor, 
for  instance,  the  statistics  show  that  the  accidents 
among  children  are  many  times  more  common 
than  those  among  adults.  (Wm.  English  Wall- 
ing, in  the  Eltical  Record  for  January,  1903.) 

We  will  conclude  with  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Barrett 
Browning's  "Cry  of  the  Children": 

"Do  you  hear  the  children  weeping,  O  my  brothers? 

They  are  weeping  bitterly. 
They  are  weeping  in  the  playtime  of  the  others, 

In  the  country  of  the  free. 
They  look  up  with  their  pale  and  sunken  faces, 

And  their  looks  are  sad  to  see, 
For  the  man's  hoary  anguish  draws  and  presses 

Down  the  cheeks  of  infancy — 
'Your  old  earth,'  they  say,  'is  very  dreary' ; 

'Our  young  feet,'  they  say,  'are  very  weak,' 
For,  'oh,'  say  the  children,  'we  are  weary, 

And  we  cannot  run  and  leap.' 
For  all  day  the  wheels  are  droning,  turning, 

Their  wind  comes  in  our  faces, 
Till  our  hearts  turn,  our  heads  with  pulses  burning, 

And  the  walls  turn  in  their  places — 
Turns  the  sky  in  the  high  window  blank  and  reeling, 

Turns  the  long  light  that  drops  adown  the  wall, 
Turns  the  black  flies  that  crawl  along  the  ceiling. 

All  are  turning,  all  the  day,  and  we  with  all. 
All  the  day  the  iron  wheels  are  droning, 

And  sometimes  we  could  play 
'Oh,  ye  wheels'  (breaking  out  in  a  mad  moaning), 

'Stop !    Be  silent  for  the  day !' 
'Ay !   be  silent !    Let  them  hear  each  other  breathing 

For  a  moment,  mouth  to  mouth ; 
Let  them  touch  each  other's  haads,  in  a  fresh  wreathing 

Their  tender  human  youth. 
Let  them  feel  that  this  cold  metallic  motion 

Is  not  all  the  life  God  fashions  or  reveals; 


102  AMKRICAN    PAUPERISM. 

Let  them  prone  their  living  souls  against  the  notion 
That  they  live  in  you  or  under  you,  O  wheels!' 

Still  all  day  the  iron  wheels  go  onward, 
Grinding  life  down  from  its  mark ; 

And  the  children's  souls,  which  God  is  calling  sunward, 
Spin  on  blindly  in  the  dark." 


THE    CAUSES    OF    POVERTY    IN    THE 
UNITED  STATES. 

The  philosophy  of  life  of  our  mercantile  civili- 
zation was  aptly  summarized  by  Carlyle  in  the 
following  words : 

"Scramble  along  thou  insane  scramble  of  the 
world,  thou  art  all  right  and  shall  scramble  even 
so  on.  And  who  ever  in  the  press  is  trodden 
down  has  only  to  lie  there  and  be  trampled  broad. 
Ours  is  a  world  requiring  only  to  be  well  let 
alone."  We  justify  this  "scramble  of  the  world" 
by  all  kind  of  more  or  less  euphonious  but 
meaningless  phrases  about  "the  survival  of  the 
fittest"  and  other  pseudo-scientific  individualistic 
maxims.  We  are  not  satisfied  with  "trampling 
broad"  those  of  our  brothers  and  sisters  in  hu- 
manity who  happen  to  be  weaker  than  we  are 
economically,  but  we  add  insult  to  injury  by  label- 
ing them  as  "unfit  to  survive,"  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  however,  it  is  not  the  parasitic  minority  who 
trample  down  who  survive,  but  just  the  reverse. 
The  proletariat,  in  spite  of  its  being  trodden  down 
"and  trampled  broad,"  survives  and  justifies  its 
name,  while  the  idle  rich  die  out.  The  so-called 
"law  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest"  is  the  weakest 
point  in  the  Darwinian  philosophy,  and,  if  ap- 
plied to  demography,  proves  to  be  merely  a  para- 
phrase of  the  long-ago  exploded  theory  of  Mal- 
thus.  The  very  idea  of  an  over-populization  of 
America  seems  preposterous.  As,  however,  Mal- 
thusian  views  are  still  surviving  in  the  minds  of 

103 


104  AMERICAN    PAUPERISM. 

the  uncritical  multitude  a  few  words  about  them 
may  be  not  out  of  place  in  this  treatise.  We 
will  quote  here  such  authorities  on  the  subject 
as  Nitti  and  Loria. 

]\Ialthus'  law  explains  nothing-  just  as  it  com- 
prehends nothing.  .Bound  by  rigid  formulas 
wliich  are  belied  by  history  and  demography,  it 
is  incapable  of  explaining  not  only  the  mystery  of 
poverty,  but  the  alternate  reverses  of  human 
civilization.  Statistical  examinations  show  that 
the  birth  rate  scarcely  ever  goes  below  20  births 
for  100  inhabitants,  and  scarcely  ever  beyond  50. 
But  all  the  oscillations  which  occur  between  20 
and  50  are  but  necessary  results  not  of  a  bio- 
logical fatal  law,  but  of  economic  and  social  laws, 
which  vary  wath  the  change  of  civilization  and  of 
economic  constitution.  (F.  S.  Nitti,  Population 
and  Social  System,  p.  114.) 

When  the  earth  ceases  to  be  free,  the  new 
(born)  members  of  the  population  depend  for 
their  subsistence  upon  the  good-will  of  the  Capi- 
talist class,  that  is  to  say,  upon  the  increase  of 
profit,  which  it  consents  to  distribute,  under  the 
form  of  food,  among  other  classes.  But  until 
profit  is  raised,  these  increases  of  profit,  which 
are  spent  in  food,  are  sufificient  to  maintain  the 
ne\y  members  of  the  population,  but  must  be 
divided  into  two  parts,  one  of  which  keeps  the 
worker,  the  other  the  mendicants,  since  these  last 
are  necessary  to  capital,  in  order  to  guarantee  the 
continuance  of  the  minimum  salary  and  of  (maxi- 
tmim)  profit.  Hence,  there  is  formed  a  syste- 
matic excess  of  population  not  over  food,  but 
over  capital  (p.  133,  Loria).  This  is  practically 
a  re-statement  of  K.  Marx's  assertion,  that  upon 
every  Capitalistic  organi;:ation  zveighs  the  neces- 


THE  CAUSES  OF  i'OXERTV.  IO5 

sity,  at  the  risk  of  its  peril,  of  producing  arti- 
ficially a  systematic  excess  of  population.  (Das 
Kapital,  p.  645  and  following.) 

The  intrinsic  cause  which  drove  the  capitalist 
class  to  originate  by  every  means  and  every  ex- 
pedient the  rapid  and  abundant  birth-rate  of  the 
wage-earning  classes  is  simply  the  necessity  of 
securing  the  persistence  of  profit.  Indeed,  we  see 
that  when  wages  are  about  the  minimum  and  the 
persistence  of  profit  is  endangered,  the  capitalist 
class  devises  every  means,  and  tries  every  way  to 
impel  the  wage-earners  to  a  great  fecundity. 
(Loria,  Vol.  I,  pp.  615-693,  and  Vol.  II,  pp. 
380-416.) 

They  (the  capitalists)  leave  nothing  untried — 
advice,  influence  by  inducement,  and  even  cor- 
ruption of  manners  are  resorted  to.  And  that 
which  finally  drives  the  wage-earner  to  this  is 
the  utter  impossibility  of  a  provident  life  and  the 
need  of  finding  in  the  work  of  women  and  chil- 
dren a  margin  to  compensate  for  the  decrease  of 
the  wages  of  adults.     (Nitti,  Population,  etc.,  pp. 

134-135-) 

When  the  permanence  of  profit  is  menaced  by 
the  slight  proportion  between  births  and  deaths, 
the  capitalist  class  restricts  the  demand  for  work 
and  occasions  pauperism,  and  hence  the  abundant 
and  disordered  birth  rate,  which  is  its  fatal  con- 
sequence (loco  citato,  p.  135).  In  England,  as 
in  every  industrial  country,  the  wages  of  women 
and  children  supplemented  insufficient  wages  of 
the  adult.  Then  the  laboring  classes,  compelled 
by  necessity,  abandoned  the  prudent  foresight, 
which  it  had  maintained  centuries,  and  multiplied 
itself  without  bounds.  But  when  the  laws  forbid 
child  labor  which  menaces  the  decay  of  the  race, 


I06  AMERICAN    PAUPERISM. 

the  employers  have  already  attained  their  end, 
the  reduction  of  the  wages  of  the  adult,      (p. 

I37-) 

The  birth  rate  is  determined  by  the  economic 
form.  In  a  country  where  the  irregularity  of 
distribution  of  wealth  is  very  great,  and  there 
exists  a  large  class  of  wage  earners,  the  birth  rate 
tends  to  be  disordered  and  abundant.  On  the 
contrary,  in  a  country  where  social  (national) 
wealth  is  greatly  subdivided  (as  in  France)  and 
the  number  of  small  possessors  large,  the  birth 
rate  tends  to  be  slight,     (p.  139.) 

When  wages  tend  to  increase  and  the  Avorkers 
have  a  chance  and  even  sometimes  the  hope  of 
ease,  the  capitalist  class,  seeing  itself  menaced, 
tends  to  change  a  great  part  of  capital  from  pro- 
ductive into  unproductive.  And  thus  it  originates 
and  grows  an  entire  parasitical  class  whose  only 
function  is  to  crystallize  wages  and  secure  the 
permanence  of  profit,     (p.  140.) 

The  worker  of  the  day  is  led  by  two  motives 
to  an  improvident  fecundity.  On  the  one  hand, 
he  very  soon  arrives  at  the  ultimate  limit  of 
aspirations,  the  apex  of  his  career,  hence  every 
effort  of  ulterior  improvement,  and,  indeed,  every 
idea  of  foresight  is  completely  thrown  aside, 
while  on  the  other  hand,  the  possibility  of  em- 
ploying children  in  factories  leads  to  the  idea 
of  increasing  the  income  of  his  family  by  in- 
creasing the  number  of  his  family.  (Le  Popula- 
tion, Loria,  p.  74.) 

A  great  birtJi  rate  ahvays  anszvers  to  a  great 
depression  of  the  working  classes,  to  smallness 
of  zvages,  to  a  bad  distribution  of  wealth.  (Nitti, 
p.  1 59.)  The  great  merit  of  K.  Marx — a  merit 
allowed   him   even   by   his  great   opposer,   Lujo 


THE  CAUS1::.S  OF  PO\'liRTY.  lO/ 

Brentano — consists  in  having  shown  the  falsity 
of  the  thesis,  according  to  which,  wages  are  con- 
sidered dependent  upon  the  excess  existing  in 
single  industries,     (p.  i6o.) 

The  fact  is  that  the  severest  poverty  has  almost 
always  occurred  in  countries  and  at  times  when 
the  means  of  subsistence  sufficed  for  the  popula- 
tion, and  even  far  exceeded  it.     (p.  165.) 

In  the  United  States  of  America  capital  often 
restricts  the  demand  for  labor  and  produces  in 
the  greatest  period  of  the  development  of  the 
public  wealth,  a  decrease  of  wages,  the  multiplic- 
ity of  men  without  work,  and  pauperism.  (Loria 
loco  citato.) 

Nitti  states  the  new  demographic  law  as  fol- 
lows : 

Given  the  constitution  of  modern  society,  the 
economic  situation  does  not  depend  upon  the  in- 
crease of  the  population  but,  on  the  contrary,  not 
only  the  number  of  those  who  live,  but  even  the 
number  of  those  i^'ho  are  horn,  depend  upon  the 
economic  situation. 

Every  improvement  of  the  condition,  every 
diffusion  of  w^ealth,  every  increase  of  wages,  and 
of  the  standard  of  living,  exercises  a  useful  in- 
fluence on  the  birth  rate. 

Hence,  nothing  is  more  certain  to  fix  limits 
to  the  birth  rate  than  high  wages  and  diffusion 
of  ease.     (p.  162.) 

As  in  animal  struggle  for  existence  parasitical 
species  are  deeply  injured  by  the  decrease  of  the 
species  upon  which  they  prey  and  subsist — the 
parasitical  classes  of  human  society  are  injured 
by  a  decreased  birth  rate  in  the  productive 
classes. 

All  the  talk  about  over-population  as  a  cause 


I08  AMERICAN    PAUPERISM. 

of  poverty  of  the  proletariat  is  not  only  a  per- 
version of  truth,  but  a  malicious  falsehood  com- 
ing with  ill  grace  from  those  who  are  directly 
profiting  from  the  same  artificial  over-population 
and  do  all  they  can  to  produce  it.  It  is  con- 
temptible cant. 

Another  alleged  cause  of  poverty  is  insufificient 
production  of  commodities.  This  represents  an- 
other paraphrase  of  Malthusianism. 

In  order  to  do  full  justice  to  the  analysis  of  this 
alleged  cause  we  have  to  review  the  industrial 
evolution  of  the  United  States.  Such  a  review 
was  published  by  a  high  authority  on  the  subject 
in  question,  the  United  States  Commissioner  of 
Labor,  Carrol  D.  Wright ;  and  we  will  follow 
his  exposition  in  our  investigation  as  far  as 
statistical  data  are  concerned. 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  EVOLUTION  OF  THE 
UNITED  STATES. 

Among  the  first  European  settlers  of  North 
America  the  simple  production  of  useful  articles 
(commodities)  prevailed.  The  producers  worked 
independently  from  each  other  at  their  own  homes 
with  their  own  tools  and  raw  materials.  The 
product  of  labor  constituted  the  individual  prop- 
erty of  each  producer.  Social-economic  relations 
in  the  colonies  were,  however,  too  complex  to 
allow  the  direct  exchange  of  commodities  be- 
tween various  producers.  The  commodities  were 
disposed  of  on  the  open  market  with  the  aid  of  a 
class  of  middlemen,  who  appropriated  the  lion's 
share  of  the  product  in  the  shape  of  profit.  Only 
two  distinct  forms  of  accumulated  wealth,  the 
merchants'  and  money  lenders'  capital,  was 
handed  down  by  the  middle  ages.  The  feudal  sys- 
tem in  the  country  and  the  guilds  in  the  towns 
of  England  hindered  the  mediaeval  capital  from 
turning  into  industrial  capital.  The  American 
colonists  naturally  followed  the  conditions  and 
circumstances  of  the  mother  country.  Individual 
production  could  not,  however,  satisfy  the  eco- 
nomic needs  of  the  growing  colonies  for  a  long 
period  of  time.  The  stringent  legislation  of  the 
English  government,  putting  an  export  duty  on 
woolen  broadcloth  and  prohibiting  the  exporta- 
tion of  sheep,  wool  and  woolen  yarn  from  Eng- 
land, stimulated  the  colonists  to  the  development 
of  home  manufacture  of  woolen  goods.  Many  la- 
109 


no  AMERICAN    PAUPKRIS.Ar. 

Ijorcrs  were  assembled  in  one  workshop  and  under 
the  personal  direction  of  the  employer  produced 
floods,  passing-  the  article  from  hand  to  hand  on 
its  way  to  completion.  A  certain  crude  division 
of  labor  was  essential  to  this  stage  of  social  pro- 
duction. And  yet  the  handicraft,  the  personal 
skill  of  the  highly  trained  laborers,  made  up  the 
foundation  of  the  manufacturing  form  of  co-op- 
eration. The  actual  productive  factors  were  men, 
not  as  yet  the  tools  of  production,  machinery. 
The  manufacturing  period  lasted  approximately 
from  1656  to  1789,  when  the  new  constitution 
went  into  effect.  As  in  the  case  of  the  manufac- 
turing system,  the  narrowly-selfish  policy  of  the 
English  government  stimulated  the  industrial  de- 
velopment of  North  America.  The  mainsprings 
of  the  rapid  abandonment  of  the  manufacturing 
system  in  favor  of  the  more  perfect  factory  sys- 
tem of  production  were  the  successful  applica- 
tions of  the  principles  of  theoretical  science  to  the 
actual  problems  and  needs  of  production  bv  such 
inventors  as  Hargrcaves,  Arkwright  and  Dr.  Ed- 
ward  Cartwright. 

We  will  have  a  chance  to  analyze  the  machine 
production  later  on  more  fully.  At  present  it  will 
suffice  to  state  that  one  of  the  most  characteristic 
features  of  the  capitalistic  or  machine  production 
consists  in  the  divorce  between  the  actual  pro- 
ducer and  his  tools  of  production.  The  main  fac- 
tor in  manufacturing-  production  was  the  skilled 
laborer  who  worked  with  relatively  crude  tools. 
Under  capitalistic  j)roduction  the  main  factor  is 
the  highly  perfected  tool  of  production — the  ma- 
chine. One  of  the  necessary  conditions  for  the  ap- 
pearance, growth  and  development  of  modern 
machine  production  is  the  existence  of  a  free 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  EVOLUTION.  Ill 

laborer,  who  would  sell  his  labor  power,  the  sum 
total  of  his  mental  and  physical  faculties,  for  a 
definite  time,  for  the  purpose  of  producing  useful 
articles.  This  free  laborer  has  to  be  compelled 
by  social  economic  conditions  to  sell  the  com- 
modity called  labor-power  as  a  means  of  subsist- 
ence for  him  and  his  family.  It  is  obvious  that 
the  existence  of  the  institution  of  slavery  in  the 
Southern  States  made  the  growth  and  develop- 
ment of  capitalistic  production  impossible.  The 
economically  advanced  Northern  States  possessed 
a  class  of  free  laborers  or  proletarians,  but  they 
could  not  compete  in  the  world's  market  with 
the  free  labor  of  slaves  in  the  South.  The  move- 
ment for  tJie  abolition  of  African  slavery  must  be 
considered  as  a  great  labor  movement,  it  was  a 
movement  against  free  slave  labor  and  in  favor  of 
a  more  advanced  economic  system.  The  Civil 
War  was  an  industrial  struggle  between  the  be- 
lated agricultural  South  and  the  economically 
advanced  North.  The  abolition  of  African  slav- 
ery cleared  the  way  for  the  rapid  development  of 
the  machine  production  and  turned  the  United 
States  into  the  most  typical  capitalistic  country  of 
the  world.  The  economical  development  of  the 
United  States  since  i860  has  no  precedent  in  the 
history  of  humankind. 

The  United  States  census  of  the  year  i860 
reported  the  capital  invested  in  mechanical  and 
manufacturing  industries  as  $1,009,855,715  and 
the  products  as  $1,855,861,679.  In  1890  the  total 
capital  invested  in  mechanical  and  manufacturing 
industries  advanced  to  $6,525,156,456  and  the 
value  of  the  products  to  $9,372,437,283,  an  in- 
crease of  546  per  cent  in  capital  and  397  per  cent 
in  product.    The  per  capita  value  of  products  for 


112  AMERICAN    PAUPERISM. 

1890  amounted  to  $149.  If  we  add  to  the  manu- 
facturing the  products  of  mining,  agricultural 
products  and  fishery  products  we  have  a  grand 
aggregate  of  $12464,052,913  or  $198  per  capita. 
(Industrial  Evolution  in  the  United  States,  by 
Carrol  D.  Wright,  1895.  pp.  159,  160.) 

This  marvelous  development  of  the  resources 
of  the  country  finds  its  explanation  in  the  ad- 
vanced methods  of  machine-production  as  com- 
pared with  hand-production. 

The  thirteenth  annual  report  of  the  United 
States  commissioner  of  labor  presents  some  ex- 
ceedingly valuable  statistics  on  the  subject.  The 
report  embraces  all  kinds  of  industries  and  is 
quite  complete  in  itself.  We  rearranged  the  fig- 
ures of  the  report  for  the  sake  of  comprehensi- 
bility,  so  as  to  contain  under  one  single  heading 
all  operations  of  manufacture,  which  were  sub- 
jected to  the  same  contraction  in  time  in  conse- 
quence of  introduction  of  machinery  as  follows. 

The  time  of  production  was  shortened  under 
machine  labor  comparatively  with  hand  labor  to 
about  two-thirds  in  the  manufacture  of  flower 
pots ;  three-fourths  in  the  manufacture  of  pocket- 
books  ;  one-half  in  the  manufacture  of  neckties, 
brooms,  collar  and  cuff  boxes,  flask  cartons,  shoe 
brushes,  jars,  clock  cases,  corks,  scythes,  design- 
ing (engraving),  dried  prunes,  hammocks,  kin- 
dling wood,  labels,  cup  plungers  (leather),  kid 
leather,  saddles,  saws,  soup  tureens  (silver),  cups 
(tin),  tobacco  (chewing),  shovels,  awnings,  flags, 
tents,  and  in  the  mining  of  bituminous  coal ;  one- 
third  in  men's  hats,  sewer  pipe,  brick,  buttons 
(vegetable  ivory),  divan  frames,  tops  (carriages), 
sleighs,  hatchets,  mantles,  engraving,  boxes  (sus- 
pender),  wood   cuts,   diamond   cuttings,   chairs, 


THE   INDUSTRIAL  EVOLUTION.  1  I3 

electrotyping,  lockets  (gold),  faucets,  sheet  music, 
bread  pans  (tin),  and  sails;  one-fourth  in  bags 
(other  than  paper),  bookbinding,  buttons  (bone, 
brace),  wagons,  barrels,  shotguns,  bureaus  (fur- 
niture), desks,  pins  (gold),  ladders  (wooden), 
marble  (cutting),  blinds,  screens  (window), 
sauce  pans,  wash  basins  (tin),  screw  drivers, 
chemises  (woman's  underwear),  typewriting 
(copying),  quarrying  (granite)  ;  one-fifth  in 
shoes  (men's  brogans),  buggies,  watch  cases, 
shears,  handkerchiefs,  chair  frames,  bolts  (iron), 
nuts  (steel),  cufif  buttons,  lasts,  brown  prints, 
milk  pans  (tin),  cans  (tin,  tomato),  chisels  and 
spokes  (wheel)  ;  one-sixth  in  rakes  (steel),  shoes 
(women's),  boxes  (tobacco),  springs,  hooks 
(brush),  cleavers,  lounges,  chains  (gold),  gran- 
ite (groving),  netting,  doors,  harness,  under- 
skirts and  window  guards  (springs)  ;  one-sev- 
enth in  gold  leaf  (cutting),  boxes  (shoe),  collars, 
brackets,  teaspoons  (silver),  wire  (gold),  tables, 
mattresses  (spring),  rods  (fishing),  springs  (fur- 
niture), measures  (tin)  ;  one-eighth  in  shoes 
(men's  calf),  buttons  (brass),  carpets  and  boxes 
(pill)  ;  one-ninth  in  button  molds,  boots  (men's 
pegged),  boots  (women's  cheap),  carpet  (sew- 
ing), combs,  rifle  stocks  and  tips,  sideboards, 
hats  (women's),  hair  pins  (silver),  air  chambers 
and  float  balls,  tobacco  (smoking),  nail  clippers, 
wheels  and  shirts ;  one-tenth  in  boxes  (baking 
powder),  files,  rings  (gold),  marble  urns  and 
vases,  posters  and  men's  clothing;  one-eleventh 
in  gravel  transportation ;  one-twelfth  in  rakes 
(wooden),  boots  (women's  fine),  rivets,  type  and 
butter;  one-thirteenth  in  bags  (paper),  railroad 
tickets  (printing),  axles  (carriage),  washers, 
granite  (dressing),  hymn  books  (printing),  shin- 


114  AMERICAN-    PAITKRISM. 

gles  and  hammers;  one-fourtcentli  in  envelopes, 
bedsteads,  coffee  pots  (tin),  one-fifteenth  in 
spring  clips  and  spring  hangers ;  one-sixteenth 
in  seals,  pitchforks,  collar  buttons,  threading  pipe, 
canning  fruit,  cigars,  dash  boards  and  iron  pipe, 
wrought.    And  so  on. 

Machinery  has  lowered  the  cost  of  production, 
but  the  hand  method  of  production  is  still  exten- 
sive, though  steadily  going  out  of  use.  Some 
comparisons  are  made  as  follows:  Ten  plows, 
which  cost  $54.46  by  hand  labor,  and  which  em- 
ployed two  men  for  1,108  hours,  cost  when  made 
by  machinery  $7.90,  employing  52  men  for  a 
total  of  2;j  hours  28  minutes.  One  hundred  blank 
books  cost,  when  made  by  hand,  $219.79  ^"^^ 
employed  3  men  for  1,272  hours;  they  cost,  when 
made  by  machinery,  $69.97,  employing  20  men 
for  a  total  of  245  hours.  Ruling  100  reams  of 
paper  cost,  when  done  by  hand,  $400,  and  em- 
ployed I  person  4,800  hours ;  when  done  by  ma- 
chinery it  cost  85  cents  and  employed  2  persons 
for  2  hours  and  45  minutes. 

The  increase  in  the  principal  industries  (tex- 
tiles, clothing,  lumber,  iron  and  steel,  leather, 
boots  and  shoes,  flour  and  meal,  sugar,  pepper, 
printing  and  publishing,  carriages  and  wagons, 
foundry  and  machine  shop  products,  and  liquors, 
distilled  and  malt),  forming  over  60  per  cent  of 
the  total  product  for  all  industries. 

The  total  capital  invested  in  the  several 
branches  of  the  textile  manufacture  increased 
from  $150,080,852  in  i860  to  $739,973,661  in 
1890,  or  393  per  cent,  while  the  value  of  product 
increased  from  $214,740,614  to  $721,949,252,  or 
236  per  cent. 

There  were   1,091   establishments  engaged   in 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  EVOLUTION.  II5 

the  manufacture  of  cotton  in  i860,  with  an  aver- 
age product  of  $106,033  and  an  average  of  4,799 
spindles  per  establishment  during  the  same  pe- 
riod. 

In  1890  there  were  905  establishments  with  an 
average  product  of  $296,112  and  an  average  of 
15,677  spindles,  an  increase  of  179  per  cent  in 
the  product  and  of  227  per  cent  in  the  number  of 
spindles  per  establishment.  During  the  same  pe- 
riod the  aggregate  capital  invested  in  the  industry 
increased  from  $98,585,269  to  $354,020,843,  or 
259  per  cent,  and  the  value  of  product  from  $115,- 
681,774  to  $267,981,724,  or  132  per  cent. 

The  capital  invested  in  the  different  branches 
of  wool  manufacture  increased  from  $38,814,422 
to  $245,886,743,  or  533  per  cent,  and  the  product 
from  $73,454,000  to  $270,527,5 II,  or  268  per  cent. 

There  were  213  establishments  engaged  in  the 
manufacture  of  carpets  in  i860  with  a  capital  of 
$4,721,768  and  a  product  valued  at  $7,857,636. 
In  1890  the  capital  increased  to  $38,208,842  and 
the  product  to  $47,770,193,  while  the  number  of 
establishments  decreased  to  173.  The  total  num- 
ber of  running  yards  of  carpet  in  1890  increased 
90  per  cent. 

The  total  capital  invested  in  silk  manufacture 
in  i860  amounted  only  to  $2,926,980  and  the 
value  of  products  to  $6,607,771,  being  about  13 
per  cent  of  the  entire  consumption  for  that  year. 
In  1890  the  home  factories  produced  55  per  cent 
of  the  total  consumption,  the  product  being  valued 
at  $87,298,454,  while  the  capital  invested  in  the 
industry  had  increased  to  $51,007,537. 

There  were  3,968  establishments  reported  in 
i860  as  engaged  in  the  manufacture  of  women's 
and  men's  clothing,  with  a  capital  of  $26,386,443 


Il6  AMERICAN    rAUI'F.RISM. 

and  a  product  of  $80,758,344.  The  number  of 
establishments  had  increased  to  19,882,  the  cap- 
ital to  $203,812,466  and  the  value  of  product  to 
$446,186,834  in  1890.  There  were  12,487  estab- 
lishments reported  in  i860  engaged  in  the  pro- 
duction of  footwear,  with  a  capital  of  $23,358,527 
and  a  product  of  $91,891,498.  In  1889,  1,959 
factories  were  reported  with  a  capital  of  $42,994,- 
028  and  a  product  of  $166,050,354,  the  total  num- 
ber of  boots  and  shoes  of  all  kincls  manufactured 
during  the  year  amounting  to  125,478.511  pairs. 
In  1890  the  capital  invested  in  the  industry 
amounted  to  $1 17.923,375  and  a  product  of  $280,- 
215,185.  The  total  number  of  boots  and  shoes  in- 
creased in  1890  43  per  cent  over  1880. 

According  to  the  United  States  Census  of  i860 
there  were  16.956  establishments,  with  a  capital 
of  $104,927,586  and  a  yearly  product  valued  at 
$323,023,593,  engaged  in  the  manufacture  of  va- 
rious forms  of  food  product.  The  grand  aggre- 
gate for  1890  was  41,608  establishments,  with  a 
capital  of  $524,669,429  and  a  product  of  $1,647,- 
477,291.  The  annual  product  for  each  of  the 
four  principal  branches  of  the  industry,  viz: 
bread,  crackers  and  other  bakery  products,  flour 
and  grist  mill  products,  slaughtering  and  meat 
packing,  and  sugar  and  molasses  refining,  exceeds 
$100,000,000.  The  manufacture  of  bakerv  prod- 
ucts reported  for  i860  amounted  to  $16,980,012 
and  for  1890  $128,621,535.  The  capital  invested 
in  the  production  of  flour,  meal  and  other  prod- 
ucts of  the  grist  mill  in  the  United  States  in 
i860  amounted  to  v$84,585,004  and  the  product  to 
$248,580,365.  In  1890  the  capital  was  $208,473,- 
500  and  the  product  $513,971,474,  being  an  in- 


THE   INDUSTRIAL   INVOLUTION.  11/ 

crease  of  146  per  cent  in  capital  and  107  per  cent 
in  the  value  of  the  product. 

In  1870  there  was  invested  in  the  meat  pack- 
ing and  slaughtering  industry  a  capital  of  $22,- 
124,787  and  a  product  of  $62,140,439.  The  cap- 
ital increased  to  $116,887,504  and  the  product  to 
$561,611,668. 

The  same  increase  appHes  to  the  manufactur- 
ing of  cheese,  butter,  etc.,  etc.  No  branch  of 
industry  profited  so  much  from  the  introduction 
of  progressive  methods  as  the  iron  and  steel  in- 
dustry. 

The  capital  invested  and  value  of  product  in- 
creased from  i860  to  1890  from  $48,372,897  to 
$414,044,844  and  from  $57,160,243  to  $478,687,- 
519,  respectively.  The  value  of  products  in- 
creased from  $207,208,696  in  1870  to  $296,557,- 
685  in  1880,  or  43  per  cent,  while  the  quality  of 
products  increased  99  per  cent.  During  the  ten 
years  from  1880  to  1890  the  value  of  products 
increased  from  $296,557,685  to  $478,687,519,  or 
61  per  cent,  and  the  tons  of  products  increased 
151  per  cent. 

Quite  instructive  are  the  data  about  the  petro- 
leum industry  in  the  United  States.  In  1880  86 
establishments  were  reported  with  a  capital  of 
$27,325,746  and  a  product  valued  at  $43,705,218. 
In  1889  the  number  of  establisments  had  in- 
creased to  94,  the  capital  to  $77,416,296  and  the 
value  of  product  to  $85,001,198. 

The  development  of  industry  manifested  itself 
likewise  in  the  increase  of  capital  invested  and 
value  of  product  in  the  manufacture  of  lumber, 
brick  and  tile  and  articles  from  gutta  percha. 

In  conclusion  we  will  mention  the  printing  and 
publishing  industry.     In  i860  printing  and  pub- 


Il8  AMERICAN    PAUPERISM. 

lishing- — including-  newspapers,  periodicals,  books 
and  job  printing — were  reported  by  i,666  esta1)- 
lishments  with  a  captial  of  $19,622,318  and  a 
product  of  $31,063,898.  In  1890  there  were  16,- 
566  establishments  reported  for  the  same  industry 
with  a  capital  of  $195,387,445  and  a  product  of 
$275,452,515. 

The  total  production  of  the  United  States  dur- 
ing the  constitutional  period,  covering  one  hun- 
dred years  of  census  taking,  have  been  extended 
from  twenty  millions  of  dollars,  as  estimated  for 
first  census  (1790),  to  $9,372,437,283  in  1890. 

In  the  distribution  of  this  vast  product  for  1890 
among  the  States,  the  State  of  New  York  leads 
with  a  product  of  $1,711,577,671,  while  Pennsyl- 
vania is  second  in  line.  Then  comes  Illinois. 
(Ibidem,  pp.  160,  188.) 

The  value  of  natural  products  can  be  stated  in 
figures  for  the  year  1889.  In  that  year  the  farms 
gave  $2,460,107,454  worth  of  products  for  the 
support  of  the  people  of  the  United  States.  The 
value  of  the  products  of  all  mining  industries  was 
$587,230,662,  of  the  fisheries,  $44,277,514;  and 
of  forests,  $446,034,761.  The  total  value  of  all 
these  natural  resources  for  the  year  1889  was 
$3'537.65o,39i.  The  wealth  of  the  country,  in- 
cluding land,  buildings,  merchandise  and  all 
forms  of  real  and  personal  property,  in  1890 
amounted  to  $65,037,091,197,  of  which  amount 
$39,544,544,333  represents  the  value  of  real  estate 
and  improvements  thereon,  and  $25,492,546  that 
of  personal  property,  including  railroads,  mines 
and  quarries. 

In  1830  only  23  miles  of  railroads  w^ere  oper- 
ated in  the  United  States,  while  in  1890  there 
were  163,597  niiles,  and  in  1893  there  were  173,- 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  EVOLUTION.  II9 

433  miles.     The  population  for  each  decennial 
census  of  the  United  States  was  as  follows : 

Census  year.  Population.     Per  cent  increase. 

1790  . . .' 3,929,214 

1800  5,308,483 35.10 

1810  7,239,881 36.38 

1820  9,633,822 33.07 

1830  12,866,020 33.5s 

1840 17,069,453 32.67 

1850  23,191,876 35.87 

i860  31,443,321 35.58 

1870 38,558,371 22.63 

1880  50,155,783 30.08 

1890  62,622,250 

(pp.  13,  75.) 

The  influence  of  machinery  on  the  producers 
consists  in  their  displacement  on  one  side,  and 
openmg-  for  them  new  fields  of  activity  on  the 
other.  In  the  manufacture  of  agricultural  imple- 
ments new  machinery  has,  in  the  opinion  of  some 
of  the  best  manufacturers  of  such  implements, 
displaced  full  fifty  per  cent  of  the  muscular  labor 
formerly  employed,  as,  for  instance,  hammers 
and  dies  have  done  away  with  the  most  particular 
labor  on  the  plow.     (p.  326.) 

It  would  require  from  fifty  to  one  hundred 
million  persons  in  this  country  working  under 
the  old  system  to  produce  the  goods  made  and 
the  work  performed  by  the  workers  of  to-day 
with  the  aid  of  machinery,     (p.  334.) 

Ray  Stannard  Baker  in  his  book  "Our  New 
Prosperity,"  published  in  1900,  draws  a  splendid 
picture  of  the  national  economic  conditions  in  the 
United  States. 

"It  was  in  1898  that  the  United  States  ex- 
ceeded Great  Britain  for  the  first  time  in  the 
totals  of  her  domestic  export.     In  the  following 


120  AMERICAN    PAUI'ICRISM. 

year  the  foreign  business  of  the  United  States 
passed  for  the  first  time  in  her  history  beyond 
two  bilHon  dollars,  and  her  profits, — that  is, — the 
excess  of  exports  over  imports,  more  than  four 
hundred  and  seventy-six  million  dollars.  In  other 
words  the  United  States  in  1899  provided  food, 
clothing  and  shelter,  great  quantities  of  foreign 
as  well  as  domestic  goods  sufficient  for  comforta- 
ble and  even  luxurious  living  for  her  people,  and 
sold  abroad  goods  at  the  rate  of  a  million  and  a 
half  dollars  in  cash  for  every  working  day.  All 
other  great  nations  of  the  earth,  except  Russia, 
are  heavy  losers  by  their  foreign  business ;  they 
buy  so  much  more  than  they  sell ;  whereas  the 
United  States  has  made  a  profit  since  1892  of  over 
two  billions  of  dollars."     (p.  3.) 

Eighteen  ninety-nine  will  go  down  in  commer- 
cial history  as  the  notable  year  in  which  the 
United  States  may  be  said  to  have  ceased  being 
a  debtor  nation  and  became  a  creditor  nation. 
This  w^as  a  year  of  extraordinary  records  also  in 
the  domestic  business  of  the  United  States,  which 
has  long  been  of  greater  volume  by  millions  of 
dollars  a  year  than  that  of  any  other  nation. 

The  bank  clearings,  one  of  the  surest  indica- 
tions of  the  volume  of  the  country's  business, 
were  billions  of  dollars  greater  they  ever  were 
before  in  the  history  of  the  nation.  In  five  years 
from  1894  to  1899  they  more  than  doubled. 
From  1898  to  1899  they  increased  by  ^^  per  cent, 
and  1898  was  itself  a  remarkable  year.  The  rail- 
roads never  experienced  such  prosperity,  the  year 
1899  showing  the  smallest  number  of  receiver- 
ships wnih  tw^o  exceptions  since  1876  and  larger 
earnings  than  ever  before.  Never  was  there  such 
an  expansion  in  the  various  manufacturing  indus- 


THE   IND'JSTRIAL  EVOLUTION.  121 

tries.  Steel  rails  doubled  in  price  between  Feb- 
ruary and  August ;  cotton  became  a  i)rofitablc 
crop,  copper  made  unprecedented  raises.  And 
never  before  was  there  so  much  money  in  circu- 
lation in  the  country,  either  in  volume  or  in  per 
capita  distribution ;  and  never  before  were  the 
totals  in  the  people's  savings  in  the  banks  so 
enormous.  It  was  also  a  year  of  extraordinary 
coal,  gold,  iron  ore,  lumber,  copper  and  corn  pro- 
duction, the  year  of  the  most  profitable  lake  and 
coastwise  steamer  traffic  since  the  civil  war,  and 
by  all  odds  the  greatest  year  of  business  and  prof- 
its on  the  Stock  Exchange,     (pp.  4,  5,  6.) 

Great  increase  in  gold  production. — M.  L. 
Muhlman,  United  States  Assistant  Treasurer  in 
New  York,  prepared  an  exceedingly  valuable 
table  comparing  the  stock  of  gold  of  all  European 
banks  of  issue  with  the  entire  stock  in  the  United 
States. 

Gold  in  the  European  Banks  Gold  in  the 

of  issue.  United  States. 

Jan.    1st,    1897 $1,591,000,000  $   693,000,000 

|]        "      1898 1,749,000,000  745,000,000 

"      1899 1,632,000,000  949,000,000 

1900 1,595,000,000  1,016,000,000 

It  will  be  seen  from  this  table  that  while  Europe 
gained  only  $4,000,000  between  1897  and  1900, 
and  actually  lost  in  the  year  1899,  the  United 
States  gained  the  enormous  sum  of  $323,000,000, 
making  the  total  stock  of  gold  only  one-third 
smaller  than  that  of  the  combined  banks  of 
Europe,     (pp.  28,  29.) 

Advance  in  per  capita  circulation. — Back  in 
i860  if  the  money  of  the  United  States  could 
have  been  divided  up,  giving  an  equal  share  to 
every  man,  woman  and  child  in  the  countrv,  there 


122  AMERICAN-    PAUPERISM. 

would  have  been  $13.85  for  each.  By  1880  this 
per  capita  share  of  the  circulation  was  $19.41  and 
in  1890  it  was  $22.82,  It  rose  to  $24.28  in  1894, 
On  February  i,  1900,  it  reached  its  climax  of 
$25.98,  the  highest  in  the  history  of  the  nation, 
(pp.  29-31.)  A  glance  at  the  number  of  commer- 
cial failures  as  recorded  by  Dun's  Review,  will 
show  how  they  decreased  from  over  15,000  in 
1893,  w^ith  an  enormous  total  of  liabilities  of 
nearly  $347,000,000,  to  only  9,337  failures  in 
1899,  with  liabilities  of  less  than  $91,000,000. 
(P-  5I-) 

United  States  as  a  food  producer. — It  is  esti- 
mated that  we  grow  80  per  cent  of  the  entire  corn 
crop  of  the  world  and  consume  most  of  it  at 
home.  Of  wheat,  "the  world's  food,"  we  are  the 
greatest  producers  among  the  nations,  surpass- 
ing our  nearest  rival,  Russia,  in  1898  by  over 
200,000,000  bushels.  Our  crops  are  over  one- 
third  of  that  of  all  Europe,  and  almost  a  quarter 
of  that  of  the  entire  world.  We  have  been  ex- 
porting for  several  years  past  more  wheat  than  is 
raised  either  in  Hungary  or  Germany^  and  more 
than  the  total  production  of  the  continent  of 
South  America,  including  the  vast  fields  of  Ar- 
gentine. Of  oats,  the  United  States  raises  more 
than  any  other  country,  and  we  also  produce 
large  quantities  of  barley  and  rye,  although  not 
as  much  as  Europe  produces. 

In  meat  production  our  record  is  quite  as  satis- 
factory. We  own  about  one-third  of  all  the  swine 
in  the  world.  The  value  of  pork  exported  in  1898 
and  1899  amounted  to  $110,000,000  each  year. 

The  United  States  is  the  greatest  cattle  raiser 
among  the  nations,  the  total  numljer  of  head  be- 
ing now  nearly  45,000.000.  or  between  one-sixth 


THE   INDUSTRIAL  EXOLUTION.  I23 

and  one-seventh  of  the  entire  stock  in  the  world. 
In  the  matter  of  mutton  production  we  do  not 
make  as  good  a  showing  as  in  cattle  raising, 
Australia,  Russia,  and  Argentine  exceeding  us, 
but  still  we  own  about  one-sixteenth  of  the 
world's  sheep,  more  than  enough  to  furnish  us 
with  all  the  mutton  that  we  can  use.  Thus  of  the 
food  staples,  bread,  meat,  butter,  milk,  as  well  as 
vegetables  and  fruit,  we  are  the  most  extensive 
producers,  for  we  not  only  feed  ourselves,  but 
help  to  supply  our  neighbors. 

As  a  clothing  producer  America  is  abundantly 
able  to  clothe  her  population  without  assistance 
from  foreign  nations. 

In  1899  America's  output  of  iron  and  steel 
products  was  about  40  per  cent  of  the  world's 
total. 

In  1899  the  United  States  took  her  place  as  the 
greatest  coal  producing  country.  Her  output 
constitutes  more  than  one-third  of  the  world's 
supply,  and  it  not  only  satisfies  her  own  enormous 
requirements,  but  helps  to  supply  the  foreign 
market  as  well. 

The  annual  output  of  petroleum  amounts  to 
2,500,000  gallons  or  half  of  the  total  output  of 
the  world. 

United  States  has  the  greatest  mileage  of  rail- 
roads, the  greatest  amount  of  freight  transported 
and  the  most  extensive  marine  traffic. 

In  the  matter  of  national  debt  the  United 
States  is  less  hampered  than  any  other  great  na- 
tion, having  a  smaller  national  debt  than  even 
Italy  or  Spain."     (pp.  246-253.) 

The  review  of  the  economic  growth  and  devel- 
opment of  the  United  States  indicates  beyond  the 
shadow  of  a  doubt  that  inadequate  production  of 


124  AMERICAN'    PAUPERISM. 

commodities,  or  insufficient  national  wealth,  can- 
not be  considered  as  causes  of  poverty.  Poverty 
exists  in  the  United  States  in  spite  of  the  growth 
of  wealth  of  the  entire  nation  unprecedented  in 
the  history  of  humanity.  The  striking  contrast 
between  the  great  wealth  of  the  nation  and  the 
poverty  of  the  toiling  masses  suggests  to  us  that 
there  must  be  something  abnormal  in  the  dis- 
tribution of  the  national  wealth  among  the  classes 
on  one  side  and  the  masses  on  the  other,  and  that 
this  inequality  in  the  distribution  of  wealth  may 
give  us  the  key  to  the  explanation  of  the  causes 
of  poverty. 

We  will  first  see  what  Carrol  D.  Wright  has  to 
say  on  the  subject  of  the  number  of  persons  em- 
ployed in  the  various  branches  of  production  and 
their  wages.     (See  his  "Industrial  Evolution.") 

"The  number  of  men  and  women  reported  em- 
ployed in  1850  was  957,059  or  4.13  per  cent  of  the 
entire  population.  In  i860,  4.17  per  cent;  in 
1870,  5.33  per  cent;  in  1880,  5.45  per  cent;  in 
1890,  7.35  per  cent  of  the  entire  population.  If 
the  percentage  for  1890  is  based  on  the  population 
of  fifteen  years  ago  and  over  it  will  be  found  that 
those  having  mechanical  or  manufacturing  occu- 
pations amount  to  12.61  per  cent  of  the  total. 

The  total  amount  of  wages  for  1850  was  re- 
ported as  $236,755,464.  In  1890  the  number  of 
wage  earners  is  reported  as  4,712,622  and  the 
wages  as  $2,283,216,529 ;  reducing  the  figures  to  a 
comparable  basis,  the  figures  show  an  increase  of 
347.88  per  cent  in  numbers  and  707.22  per  cent 
in  total  wages  over  1850.  During  the  same  pe- 
riod the  average  annual  earnings  per  employee 
increased  from  $249.38  to  $445.85,  being  an  in- 
crease of  198.47  or  80.22  per  cent. 


THE   INDUSTRIAL  EVOLUTION.  I25 

The  net  value  (i.  e.,  the  value  remaining  after 
deducting  the  cost  of  materials,  the  value  added 
to  the  raw  material  by  labor)  is  a  very  interesting 
indication  of  industrial  development. 

For  all  the  industries  in  the  United  States  the 
data  show  that  in  1850  51  per  cent  of  the  net 
value  was  assigned  to  labor  and  in  1890  45  per 
cent.  (p.  192.)  In  the  thirty  years  from  i860 
to  1890  the  proportion  of  net  products  assigned 
to  labor  in  the  shoe  manufacturing  industry  de- 
creased from  63  to  53  per  cent,  the  annual  earn- 
ings increased  to  447.44 ;  the  net  product  in- 
creased 171  per  cent :  and  the  capital  required  for 
one  dollar  of  net  product  to  eighty-eight  cents. 

The  average  number  of  men,  women  and  chil- 
dren engaged  in  mechanical  and  manufacturing 
industries  was  3,492,029,  receiving  $1,590,997,000 
wages,  the  number  being  74  per  cent  of  the  total 
Avages.  The  men  numbered  2,881,795,  receiving 
$1,436,482,387  as  wages.  The  women  numbered 
505,712,  receiving  $139,329,719  as  wages;  the 
children  numbered  104,522,  receiving  $14,704,891 
as  wages.  The  annual  average  earnings  for  men 
was  $498,  for  women  $276  and  for  children  $141. 
(p.  199.) 

Indicated  decimally  the  increase  in  average 
wages  from  i860  has  been  from  82.5  in  1840  to 
168.6  in  1890. 

Of  course  the  purchasing  power  of  the  wages 
and  the  change  in  the  standard  of  living  may  have 
made  this  increase  rather  illusory. 

Carrol  D.  Wright's  exposition  on  that  score 
does  not  seem  to  us  conclusive,     (p.  227.) 

Carrol  D.  Wright's  and  other  data  of  official 
statistics  we  quote  below  claim  that  prices  de- 
clined to  a  level  lower  than  in  1840,  while  the 


126  AMEKICAX    PAUPERISM. 

wages  increased  to  fabulous  proportions.  This 
seems  to  be  far  too  optimistic.  In  the  sixteenth 
annual  report  of  the  Massachusetts  Bureau  of 
Statistics  of  Labor  there  are  quotations  of  prices 
of  commodities  covering  the  period  from  1752  to 
1883  and  a  general  comparison  from  1830  to  i860. 
It  appears  that  from  1830  to  i860  agricultural 
products  advanced  in  price  62.8  per  cent ;  burn- 
ing oils  and  fluids,  29  per  cent;  candle  and  soap, 
42.6  per  cent ;  dairy  products,  38.8  per  cent ;  fish, 
9.8  per  cent ;  flour  and  meal,  26  per  cent ;  fuel 
(wood),  54.4  per  cent;  meats,  53  per  cent. 

It  is  true  that  prices  on  manufactured  goods — 
boots,  shoes,  clothing,  dress  goods  and  dry  goods 
— correspondingly  declined.  The  working  men, 
however,  use  comparatively  little  of  manufactured 
goods,  while  they  cannot  get  along  without  a 
fixed  quantity  of  food  products.  Especially  note- 
worthy is  the  enormous  increase  in  rent.  H.  L. 
Bliss,  contributor  of  statistical  articles  to  the 
Journal  of  Political  Economy  and  American 
Journal  of  Sociology,  in  his  pamphlet  "Plutoc- 
racy's Statistics,"  subjects  the  offtcial  statistics  to 
a  most  rigid  criticism,  especially  wage  statistics, 
and  proves  that  the  data  about  wages  and  prices 
are  doctored  "in  the  most  unscrupulous  manner 
in  the  interest  of  plutocracy."  After  having  re- 
jected the  ofificial  data  as  intentionally  falsified 
he  presents  his  own  figures,  which  we  quote  here. 

The  Massachusetts  report  regarding  manufac- 
turing industries  for  1897  (p.  174)  presents  com- 
parative statistics  for  4,695  identical  establish- 
ments for  the  years  1896  and  1897,  showing  aver- 
age annual  earnings  of  $426.66  in  the  former  and 
$421.69  in  the  latter  year.  The  average  time 
worked  was  281.03  c^ays  in  the  former  and  283.33 


THE   INDUSTRIAL  EVOLUTION.  I27 

in  the  latter  year.  Thus  there  was  $5  less  pay  and 
two  days'  more  work. 

The  report  for  1898  (p.  'J2)  gives  statistics 
of  4,701  establishments  for  the  years  1897  and 
1898,  which  show  average  annual  earnings  as 
$422.26  in  1897  and  $421.48  in  1898.  The  work- 
ing time  increased  from  284.05  days  to  286.28 
days.  Thus  there  was  paid  79  cents  less  for  over 
two  more  days'  work. 

The  Massachusetts  report  for  1899  shows  that 
in  4.740  establishments  there  was  an  increase  in 
average  annual  earnings  from  $419.91  in  1898 
to  $427.71  in  1899,  and  that  the  average  time 
worked  was  286.27  days  in  1898  and  294.14  days 
in  1899.  Thus  for  7.87  days'  more  work  there 
was  an  increase  in  pay  for  the  year  of  $7.80. 
This  indicates  a  slight  decrease  in  per  diem 
wages. 

The  decrease  occurred  notwithstanding  the  fact 
of  a  greater  increase  in  male  than  in  female  em- 
ployees ;  the  increase  was,  males,  10.6  per  cent ; 
females,  7.63  per  cent.  The  increase  in  number 
of  employees  of  both  sexes  was  9.58  per  cent. 
In  1898  the  increase  in  the  number  of  employees 
was  1.80  per  cent.    In  1897  it  was  2.72  per  cent. 

The  Pennsylvania  report  for  1898  gives  com- 
parative statistics  of  961  identical  establishments 
for  the  years  1896,  1897  and  1898,  but  the  report 
of  1S99  makes  comparison  of  but  855  establish- 
ments. It  seems  somewhat  singular  to  find 
omitted  all  of  the  establishments  of  the  clothing 
industry,  nine  in  number.  It  does  not  seem  pos- 
sible that  the  whole  nine  could  have  gone  out  of 
business.  The  average  daily  wages  in  these  es- 
tablishments, having  3,105  employees,  was,  ac- 
cording to  the  report  of  1898,  but  66  cents.    This 


I_'8  AMERICAN    PAUPERISM. 

and  otlicr  omissions  from  the  li§t  of  establish- 
ments for  which  comparison  is  made,  seems  to 
have  been  due  to  the  pur])ose  of  obtaining  a 
higher  average  wage  for  1899.  The  following 
shows  the  average  number  of  days  the  establish- 
ments were  in  operation,  the  average  annual  earn- 
ings and  daily  wages  for  855  establishments  as 
given  in  the  report  of  the  secretary  of  Internal 
Affairs  of  Pennsylvania  (part  3). 

Days  in  operation.  Average  annual        Daily  wages, 

earnings. 

1896  268 $409.81 $1.33 

1897  276 382.94 1.39 

1898 286 398.69 1.39 

1899  288 432.49 1.50 

It  should  be  understood  that  the  average  an- 
nual earnings  is  obtained  in  both  Massachu- 
setts and  Pennsylvania  reports  by  dividing 
the  total  wages  by  the  average  number  of 
employees,  and  represents  the  average  an- 
nual earning  of  only  those  operatives  who 
are  employed  during  the  whole  time  the  estab- 
lishment is  in  operation.  It  will  be  noticed 
that  while  the  average  wages,  as  well  as  average 
earnings,  were  higher  in  1899  than  in  1898,  the 
average  wages  were  lower  than  in  1896.  Thus 
we  have  in  1899  an  increase  in  per  diem  wages, 
according  to  the  Pennsylvania  report,  and  a  de- 
crease according  to  that  of  Massachusetts.  Aver- 
ages are,  however,  often  deceiving. 

The  Massachusetts  reports  cover  nearly  every 
manufacturing  establishment  in  the  state  of  any 
importance  and  therefore  come  nearer  reflecting 
the  condition  of  wage-earners  generally  than 
could  be  done  by  the  comparison  for  a  few  estab- 
lishments. 


THE   INDUSTRIAL  EVOLUTION.  I29 

The  Pennsylvania  report  shows  a  larger  in- 
crease in  the  number  of  those  employed  in  the 
higher  paid  industries,  notably  in  iron  and  steel 
production.  As  we  have  already  discovered,  the 
statistician  has  dropped  establishments  from  the 
comparison  that  might  show  an  increase  in  the 
lowest  paid  employees.  Let  us,  however,  take  a 
single  industry,  one  in  which  there  has  been  a 
boom,  largely  owing  to  foreign  demand.  Taking 
the  pig  iron  industry  we  find  the  following  fig- 
ures : 

Days  in  operation.         Average  annual        Daily  wages. 

earnings. 
1896 289 $396.30 $1.37 

1897  306 414-92 1.36 

1898    326 442.32 1.32 

1899  ZV 496.18 1.51 

This  seems  quite  favorable  to  the  wage  earner, 
for  he  gets  nearly  $100  more  for  his  year's  work 
than  in  1896,  though  working  38  days  more  to 
obtain  it.  This  is  what  he  gets.  Let  us  see  what 
is  the  increased  value  which  his  labor  produces 
and  which  he  does  not  get. 

The  following  figures  are  brought  together 
from  page  513  of  this  report: 

1896.  1899, 

Average  realized  value  per  ton $11.21 $15.01 

Average  cost  of  basic  material   6.52 5.94 

Average  cost  of  labor  per  ton 1.14 1.16 

Thus  labor  receives  an  increase  of  2  cents  per 
ton  while  the  employer  realized  an  increased  mar- 
gin between  selling  price  and  cost  of  labor  and 
material  of  $4.36  per  ton. 

Compared  with  the  reports  of  earlier  years,  ac- 
cording to  the  Massachusetts  manufacturing  re- 


130  AMERICAN    PAUPERISM. 

turns,  the  average  annual  earnings  decreased 
from  1892  to  1898  $30.73  and  such  earnings  were 
one-third  of  a  dollar  less  in  1898  than  in  1894, 
the  year  following  the  disastrous  panic  of  1893, 
a  panic  which,  though  world-wide,  may,  in  a 
measure  at  least,  be  attributed  to  legislation,  (pp. 
24,  25  and  ^6.)  The  most  reliable  statistics  indi- 
cate not  only  a  fall  in  wages  since  the  panic  of 
1893,  but  that  there  has  been  an  almost  continuous 
decline  from  the  high  wages  preceding  the  panic 
of  1873. 

Especially  deplorable  are  the  wages  earned  by 
■women. 

Riis  (in  his  "Other  Half,"  etc.,  p.  241)  states 
for  New  York  City  as  follows.  Sixty  cents  is  put 
as  the  average  day's  earnings  of  the  150,000 
(working  girls  and  women),  but  into  this  compu- 
tation enters  the  stylish  "cashier"  two  dollars  a 
day  as  well  as  the  thirty  cents  of  the  poor  little 
girl  who  pulls  thread  in  an  East  Side  factory, 
and,  if  anything,  the  average  is  probably  too  high. 
Such  as  it  is,  however,  it  represents  board,  rent, 
clothing  and  "pleasure"  to  this  army  of  workers. 
Here  is  the  case  of  a  woman  employed  in  the 
manufacturing  department  of  a  Broadway  house. 
She  is  typical  of  a  hundred  other  women. 
She  averages  $3  (three)  a  week.  She  pays  $1.50 
for  her  room,  for  breakfast  she  has  a  cup  of  cof- 
fee. Lunch  she  cannot  afford,  one  meal  a  day  is 
her  allowance.  This  woman  is  young  and  she  is 
pretty.  She  has  the  "world  before  her."  (p. 
241.) 
^  The  Fourth  Annual  Report  of  the  Commis- 
sioner of  Labor,  1885,  "Working  Women  in 
Large  Cities,"  contains  the  following  data: 
"Seventeen  thousand  four  hundred  and  twenty- 


THE   INDUSTRIAL  KVOLUTIOX.  I3I 

seven  working-  women  living  in  22  cities  of  the 
United  States  were  interviewed  1)y  the  agents  of 
of  the  Department  of  Labor.  The  cities  selected 
are  thoroughly  representative  of  different  parts  of 
the  country,  including  the  South,  the  North  and 
West,  the  Middle  States,  the  Pacific  coast  and 
the  Atlantic  slope.  As  six  to  seven  per  cent  of 
the  actual  number  of  women  in  the  employments 
considered  in  these  cities  were  treated  of  in  the 
report,  the  results  of  the  last  may  be  considered 
as  fairly  illustrative  of  the  condition  of  the  entire 
class  of  toiling  womanhood.  From  the  17,427 
only  6  were  children  under  10  years  of  age,  and 
247  of  the  number  had  begun  work  before  they 
were  10;  four  were  10  years  old,  and  337  had  be- 
gun at  10;  16  were  11,  and  964  had  begun  at  11  ; 
48  were  12,  and  1,388  had  begun  at  twelve;  236 
were  13,  and  2,502  had  begun  at  13;  over  one- 
sixth  were  16  or  under,  and  13.505  had  begun  at 
16  or  under.  More  of  the  girls  were  18  than  of 
an)-  other  age.  The  average  age  at  work  was  22 
years  and  7  months ;  the  average  age  for  begin- 
ning 15  years  and  4  months.  The  number  w^ho 
worked  after  they  were  30  years  old  was  267 ; 
and  those  who  worked  after  40  was  y^.  Ten 
thousand  four  hundred  and  fifty-six  of  the  girls 
had  attended  public  schools,  and  5,375  had  been 
in  other  schools.  That  the  school  training  they 
received  was  not  of  a  high  order  can  be  judged 
by  the  fact  that  947  girls  who  reported  that  they 
attended  school  could  not  read  an  easy  sentence. 
The  report  suggests  the  conclusion  that  in  the 
22  cities  investigated  there  were  about  300,000 
working  women  of  an  average  age  of  22,  who 
started  to  work  at  the  average  age  of  15  with  a 
very  poor  school  training. 


132  AAI  ERICA  X    PAUPERISM. 

The  conditfons  umkr  which  women  work  are 
less  favorable  than  those  of  the  male  workers. 

The  wages  paid  were  found  to  averag-e  $5.24 
for  13,822  women  who  reported ;  373  earned  less 
than  $100  per  }-ear ;  there  were  some  400  who 
received  from  $450  to  $500  ;  but  over  half  received 
as  much  as  $150  but  less  than  $300.  About  150,- 
000  women  in  the  22  cities  investigated  were  com- 
pelled to  live  on  such  beggarly  incomes,  be  re- 
spectably dressed  and  ''look  pleasant"  during 
business  hours. 

Some  women  reported  tliat  they  averaged  from 
their  regular  occupation  an  income  of  about  $295 
a  year,  that  their  expenses  for  rooms  and  meals 
amounted  to  about  $162.  for  clothes  about  $80, 
and  for  other  expenses  about  $38,  leaving  them  a 
surplus  of  $15  a  year.  These,  however,  were 
cases  where  the  women  had  a  home;  14,918  out 
of  17,427  live  at  home.  Of  these  nearly  10,000 
assist  with  housework,  and  over  13,000  either 
give  their  earnings  to  their  family  or  pay  board. 

Director  of  Charities  Harrison  B.  Coolcy,  Ohio, 
has  been  looking  into  the  condition  of  Cleveland's 
working  women.  In  the  report  which  he  has 
prepared  from  personal  investigation  and  observa- 
tion he  avers  that  he  is  grievously  suprised  at  the 
result.  He  found  that  the  average  cost  of  living 
for  a  woman  of  this  class  was  $5.24,  while  the 
average  wage  is  $4.83.  He  stated  that  out  of 
thirty-eight  women  he  questioned,  twelve  were 
earning  $3  and  six  were  earning  but  $2  per  week. 
This,  he  declares,  is  a  fair  representation  of  the 
general  condition.  The  director  said,  "To  those 
who  are  permitted  to  see  it,  the  tragedy  of  our 
modern  industrial  and  social  system  is  appalling. 
The  cruel  and  unjust  conditions  really  cause  a 


THE  TxnrsTRiAi.  EX'or.uTTON.  133 

ruin  and  degradation  of  life  a  hundred  fold  more 
than  the  things  reformers  are  more  prone  to  at- 
tack."    (Taxpayer  and  Workingmen.) 

Returning  to  official  statistics  we  find  the  fol- 
lowing- instructive  data.  The  census  of  the  de- 
cade 1 890- 1 900  contains  the  following  figures. 

The  total  increase  of  the  population  of  the 
United  States  during  that  decade  was  20.7  per 
cent ;  the  total  increase  of  the  number  total  value 
of  products  in  the  United  States  during  that  de- 
cade was  23.2  per  cent ;  the  total  increase  of  the 
number  of  laborers  in  the  United  States  was  25.2 
per  cent. 

The  total  increase  of  laborers  was  83/2  per  cent 
greater  than  that  of  wages. 

The  solid  fact  is  painfully  emphasized  by  the 
following  figures.  The  average  wages  in  1890 
were  $444.83  and  in  1900  only  $439.09.  That 
means  actually  $6.88  or  1.5  per  cent  less  in  1900 
than  in  1890.  According  to  Dun's  Index  the 
prices  of  350  articles  mostly  used  by  the  working 
class  averaged  during-  that  time  an  increase  of  1.8 
per  cent.  If  we  deduct  this  increase  of  prices 
from  the  rate  of  wages  we  will  get  a  reduction 
of  3.3  per  cent  in  the  real  wages,  or  the  purchas- 
ing power  of  a  day's  work.  The  decreased  pur- 
chasing powers  of  a  dollar  alone  during  that  pe- 
riod would  indicate  a  decline  of  2  per  cent  in 
actual  wages. 

Let  us  now  take  into  consideration  the  corre- 
sponding data  of  the  previous  census  for  the  de- 
cade I 880- I 890. 

The  increase  of  the  number  of  laborers  from 
1880-1890  amounted  to  55.61  per  cent,  while  the 
total  wages  for  that  decade  increased  99.5  per 
cent.     The  aggregate  wages  paid  to  them  in- 


134  AMKRICAX    PAUPERISM. 

creased  79  per  cent  faster  than  the  nuinl)cr  of 
total  laborers.  Dividing  the  total  wages  by  the 
total  number  of  laljorcrs  from  1880- 1890  the  aver- 
ages wages  increased  28^  per  cent.  Moreover, 
the  purchasing  power  of  a  dollar  rose  8  per  cent, 
making  an  increase  in  real  wages  of  more  than 
38  per  cent.  Comparing  now  the  data  of  the 
two  censuses  we  are  forced  to  the  conclusion  that 
there  v.-as  a  remarkable  fall  in  the  actual  w^ages 
during  the  last  decade,  a  fall  amounting,  accord- 
ing to  the  most  conservative  calculation,  to  about 
2  per  cent  in  the  decade  1890-1900  if  only  the 
purachising  power  alone  would  be  taken  into  con- 
sideration and  the  rate  of  wages  would  be  as- 
sumed as  stationary.  In  order  to  be  fair  we  will 
glance  at  the  figures  expressing  the  state  of  eco- 
nomic growth  of  production  in  tlie  country  in  gen- 
eral. 

The  comparison  of  the  two  censuses  in  that  re- 
spect shows  that  the  increase  in  the  total  product 
was,  both  actually  and  relatively,  greater  from 
1 880- 1 890  than  from  1890- 1900,  the  increase  be- 
ing 39  per  cent  for  the  last  against  74.51  per  cent 
for  the  first.  In  proportion  to  the  population  the 
wealth  product  in  1880  was  $107  per  capita,  in 
1890  $149,  or  an  increase  of  $42  per  capita;  in 
1900  it  was  $170,  showing  an  increase  of  $21 
per  capita.  So  it  appears  that  the  product  per 
capita  increased  just  twice  as  fast  in  1880- 1890 
than  in  1890- 1900. 

The  comparative  Avages  in  gold  were  as  fol- 
lows : 

Date.  Daily  wages  in  gold. 

January,   i860 $1.18 

January,   1873 1.81 

January,    1891 1.69 


THE   INDUSTRIAL  EVOLUTIOX.  I35 

In  Other  words,  wages  in  gold  in  the  urban  es- 
tablishments which  reported  advanced  53^  per 
cent  during  the  thirteen  years  between  i860  and 
1873.  During  the  succeeding  eighteen  years,  de- 
spile  the  continued  advance  in  the  productiveness 
of  labor,  they  lost  enough  to  reduce  the  net  gain 
to  43  per  cent.  During  the  war  the  wages  of 
labor  advanced  rapidly  (about  one-third  if  meas- 
ured in  gold).  After  the  war  was  over  wages 
rapidly  advanced  till  1873.  From  that  time  until 
1879  the  wages  fell  rapidly.  With  the  resumption 
of  specie  payment  the  wages  started  to  increase 
pretty  steadily  until  1893.  From  the  middle  of 
that  year  wages  fell  again.  According  to  the 
latest  volumes  of  the  Connecticut  Labor  Report 
and  the  ^Massachusetts  "Statistics  of  Manufac- 
ture," the  nominal  rate  of  wages  in  1894  had  de- 
clined about  seven  per  cent  below  the  level  of 
1892,  while  the  yearly  level  of  the  incomes  of  the 
laborers  had  been  still  reduced  further  by  lack  of 
employment.  Manufacturing  laborers  have  had  a 
heavy  share  of  the  loss  inflicted  on  all  producers 
by  the  fall  of  prices.  (Spahr — Distribution  of 
Wealth,  p.  III.) 

Capital  receiz'es  two-fifths  of  the  national  in- 
come, while  the  labor  of  all  classes,  including 
that  of  capitalists,  receives  three-fifths. 

Extra  Census  Bulletin  67,  of  the  Eleventh 
United  States  Census,  contains  an  array  of  fig- 
ures dealing  with  manufacturing  industries  in  this 
country,  the  purpose  being  to  show  w'hat  propor- 
tion of  such  enterprises  goes  to  the  labor  em- 
ployed in  them.  This  table  will  show  the  conclu- 
sion succinctlv : 


136  AMERICAN    PAUPERISM. 

Product  total  manufactures  in  1890 $9,370,107,624 

Material  and  miscellaneous  cost 5,789,812,411 

Wages  cost 2.282,823,265 

Balance  to  capital 1,297,471,948 

Conditions  i)i  New  York. — The  Bureau  of  La- 
bor compiles  statistics  of  wages  and  employees 
from  the  reports  of  3.553  of  the  largest  manufac- 
turing concerns  of  the  State.  The  table  shows 
how  the  ntnnber  of  employees  increased  from 
1896  to  1899.  fiscal  years,  and  especially  from 
1896  to  1898: 

Number  of  employees. 

1896 299,957 

1897 304,131         1.4  per  cent  increase 

1898 326,090        7.2  per  cent  increase 

1899 .356.278        9.2  per  cent  increase 

Total  increase  in  the  years  56.321,  18.7  per 
cent. 

The  aggregate  of  wages  paid  by  the  same  es- 
tablishments : 

1896 $141,184,845 

1897 138,577,678  1.8  per  cent  decrease 

1898 151.279.000  9.2  per  cent  increase 

1899 162,645,649  7.5  per  cent  increase 

Increase  wages  1889  over  1896,  $21,460,804, 
or  15.2  per  cent. 

From  this  table  it  will  be  seen  that  the  number 
of  men  employed  increased  more  rapidly  (18.7 
per  cent)  than  did  the  total  wages  (15.2  per 
cent). 

In  main  the  increase  in  number  of  men  em- 
ployed in  1897  above  1898  was  20  per  cent,  while 
the  increase  in  total  earnings  reached  only  15  per 
cent. 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  EVOLUTION.  I37 

Commissioner  Martin  F.  McHalc  writes  in 
February  i6,  1900:  "The  relative  cost  of  living 
is  on  all  sides  conceded  to  be  fully  20  per  cent 
more  than  it  was  one  and  two  years  ago."  The 
commissioners  of  Colorado,  Minnesota  and  other 
States  report  decided  advance  in  cost  of  living. 
The  Massachusetts  Labor  Bulletin  shows,  on  the 
wdiole,  an  upward  tendency  in  prices.  Here  is  a 
list  which  will  show  comparative  prices  of  a  few 
of  the  principal  food  commodities  in  the  Boston 
market : 

January  i,  1899.  January  i,  1900. 

Increase  per  cent. 

Sirloin   steak 10 

Bacon  10 

Fresh   pork 44 

Butter 6 

Coffee,  sugar,  molasses,  salt,  beans  and  most 
vegetables  were  slightly  higher.  Generally 
speaking  meat  was  higher  in  price  early  in  1900 
than  a  year  previous,  whereas  bread  was  un- 
changed in  price.  Bradstreet's  agency  compiled 
a  most  valuable  list,  showing  the  commodities 
which  changed  in  prices  between  January  i,  1899, 
and  January  i,  1900. 

INCREASES    IN    PRICE. 

Beef  (live)  Lard 

Sheep    (live)  Butter 

Hogs   (live)  Cheese 

Horses  Mackerel 

Beef  (carcasses)  Coffee 

Hogs  (carcasses)  Sugar 

Milk  Molasses 

Beef   (family)  Salt 

Pork  Southern    coke 

Bacon  Linseed  oil 

Hams  Rosin 


U8 


AMERICAN    PAUPERISM. 


Beans 

Peas 

Potatoes 

Peanuts 

Lemons 

Raisins 

Hides 

Hemlock  leather 

Union  leather 

Oak  leather 

Cotton 

Wool 

Plemp 

Jute 

Flax 

Print  cloth 

Standard   sheeting 

Ginghams 

Southern    sheeting 

Petroleum 

Castor  oil 

Turpentine 


Iron  ore 

Eastern  pig  iron 

Southern  pig  iron 

Bessemer  pig  iron 

Steel   billets 

Steel  rails 

Tin  plates 

Steel  beams 

Copper 

Lead 

Tin 

Quicksilver 

Anthracite  coal 

Bituminous  coal 

Connelsville  coke 

Rubber 

Paper 

Hay 

Cotton   seed 

Olive  oil 

Tar 


JANUARY   I,  1899,  AND  JANUARY  i,   1900. 


INCREASES  IN  PRICE. 


Paper 

Spruce  timber 

Nails 

Hemlock  timber 

Carbolic  acid 

Caustic 

Glass 

Alum 

Yellow  pine 

Borax 

Sulphuric  acid 

Quinine 

DECREASED 

IN    PRICE. 

Wheat 

Rice 

Corn 

Carrots 

Oats 

Silver 

Barley 

Brick 

Rye 

Alcohol 

Flour 

Opium 

Mutton   (carcasses) 

Hops 

Eggs 

Tobacco 

Tea 

Ground  bone 

THE   lADUSTRIAL  EVOLUTION.  I39 

UNCHANGED    PIUCES. 

Bread  Aluminum 

Codfish  Lime 

Apples  Bicarbonate  of  soda 

Cranberries  Nitric  acid 

(pp.  61,  62.) 

To  every  unprejudiced  mind  this  list  proves 
conclusively  that  the  most  important  food  prod- 
ucts and  most  needed  commodities  increased  in 
price.  The  decline  in  breadstuffs — wheat  and 
corn — was  only  about  six  per  cent. 

The  Massachusetts  Bureau  of  Statistics,  in  a 
pamphlet  entitled  Comparative  Wages  and  Prices, 
1 860- 1 892,  states  that,  as  a  rule,  wages  were 
higher  in  1897  than  in  1881,  only  eight  indus- 
tries being  reported  as  exceptions,  but  the  wages 
in  1897  were  lower  than  in  1872.  In  the  prices 
of  groceries  there  was  a  decrease  of  30  per  cent 
from  1872  to  1877,  and  a  decrease  of  6.67  per 
cent  from  1887.  Provisions,  as  a  whole,  show  a 
decrease  of  18.52  per  cent  in  1897,  compared  with 
both  1872  and  1881.  But  even  if  it  could  be 
proven  that  prices  of  necessities  declined,  the  rise 
in  rent  was  so  exorbitatnt  as  to  overweigh  this 
decline.  Not  only  does  this  higher  rent  reduce 
to  its  full  extent  the  portion  of  income  available 
for  other  purposes,  but  the  tenement  house  sys- 
tem, coincident  with  it,  by  precluding  the  possibil- 
ity of  purchasing  coal  by  the  ton  and  wood  by  the 
load,  drives  up  to  extortionate  figures  the  retail 
price  of  fuel.  A  part  of  the  benefits  which  would 
otherwise  have  accrued  to  the  wage  earning  class 
from  the  reduction  that  took  place  in  the  average 
retail  prices  of  food  and  clothing  was  therefore 
transferred  to  the  landlord  and  retail  dealer. 


140  AMERICAN    TAUPKRISM. 

In  connection  with  the  investigation  of  tlie  in- 
come of  laborers  it  will  be  instructive  to  cast  a 
cursory  glance  at  their  budget.  According  to 
Dr.  Engel  of  Prussia  a  workingman  Ayith  an  in- 
come from  $225  to  $300  a  year  spends  on  means 
of  subsistence  62  per  cent  of  his  earnings,  while 
his  expense  and  clothing  reaches  only  16  per  cent. 
On  lodging  he  spends  12  per  cent;  fuel  and  light. 
5  per  cent,  making  a  total  of  95  per  cent ;  5  per 
cent  being  left  for  religion,  legal  protection,  care 
of  health  and  recreation. 

Very  close  to  these  figures  are  the  data  about 
the  percentage  of  expenditures  of  a  working- 
man's  family  with  an  income  of  $754.42  in  the 
State  of  Massachusetts.  He  spends  on  subsist- 
ence, in  round  figures,  49  per  cent;  clothing,  15 
per  cent;  rent,  19  per  cent;  fuel,  4  per  cent;  sun- 
dry expenses,  10  per  cent.  Dr.  Engel's  figures 
for  a  laborer  of  approximately  the  same  income 
are :  Expenses  for  subsistence,  50  per  cent ; 
clothing,  18  per  cent;  rent,  12  per  cent;  fuel,  5 
per  cent;  sundry  expenses,  15  per  cent.  (Report 
of  the  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics  of  the  State  of 
New  York,  1892,  p.  294.) 

A  number  of  budgets  of  workingmen's  fami- 
lies residing  in  the  State  of  New  York  show  like- 
wise the  preponderance  of  the  percentage  of  the 
expenses  for  means  of  subsistence  and  rent  over 
manufactured  articles.  It  will  suffice  to  quote 
here  one  typical  budget  of  a  carpenter's  family 
with  an  income  of  $363.  The  expenses  for  rent, 
fuel  and  light  make  up  33.4  per  cent ;  food,  46.3 
per  cent;  clothing,  11.6  per  cent,  and  miscella- 
neous, 8.7  per  cent  of  the  budget,     (p.  301.) 

The  standard  of  living  of  the  wage-earning 
class  has  not  risen  in  proportion  to  its  productiv- 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  EVOLUTION.  I4I 

ity.  The  productivity,  in  fact,  has  increased  most 
in  the  very  things  that  the  working  class  itself 
can  neither  consume,  own  or  enjoy,     (pp.  334, 

335-) 

The  State  of  New  York  contains  nearly  one- 
tenth  of  the  population  and  over  one-sixth  of  the 
total  wealth  of  the  Union. 

The  review  of  the  economic  development  of 
that  State  for  the  ten  years  from  1880- 1890,  ac- 
cording to  official  data  of  the  Labor  Bureau,  will 
be  therefore  of  special  interest. 

The  total  capital  engaged  in  manufacturing  in- 
dustries of  all  kinds,  after  making  necessary  sub- 
tractions for  industries  and  items  omitted  in  the 
previous  census,  increased  97.37  per  cent  from 
1880  to  1890  in  the  City  of  New  York. 

The  number  of  hands  emplo}'ed  in  manufactur- 
ing industries  in  the  City  of  New  York  increased 
48.9  per  cent  for  the  same  period. 

In  the  aggregate,  the  capital  invested  in  manu- 
facturing industries  has  increased  in  a  higher 
ratio  than  the  number  of  hands  employed.  The 
returns  for  seventy-five  leading  cities  throughout 
the  country  show  an  increase  of  123.51  per  cent  in 
capital,  against  the  much  lower  increase  of  65.77 
per  cent  in  the  number  of  persons  employed.  This 
is  one  of  the  facts  which  confirm  and  illustrate 
the  proposition  that  the  average  amount  of  capital 
required  to  successfully  engage  in  business  is 
steadily  growing  larger.  This  fact  in  its  turn 
leads  to  an  increasing  concentration  of  the  indus- 
trial activity  in  the  shape  of  gigantic  combines, 
monopolies  and  trusts  as  an  inevitable  result. 
The  amount  paid  for  labor  in  the  City  of  New 
York  increased  127.89  per  cent  and  the  average 
earnings   of  the   workings   were   $653   in   1890, 


142  AMl'.RICAX    i'.vL  |-|.kl.S.\l. 

against  $427  in  1880,  sliowing  an  increase  of 
52.93  cent.  We  have,  however,  no  rcHable  data 
about  the  actual  purchasing  power  of  wages, 
modified  by  the  change  in  prices  and  rents.  This 
remark  appHes  hkewise  to  the  following  data. 
For  the  seventy-five  cities  above  referred  to  the 
number  of  employees  increased  65.77  per  cent, 
but  the  aggregate  wages  paid  increased  135  per 
cent,  and  the  average  individual  earnings  were 
$547  in  1890  agajnst  $386  in  1880,  an  increase 
of  41.71  per  cent. 

The  number  of  persons  employed  in  manufac- 
turing increased  faster  than  the  population.  The 
wage  system  developed  at  an  unprecedented  rate 
in  the  State  of  New  York  during  the  past  decade. 
1 880- 1 890,  more  so  than  in  the  rest  of  the  United 
States. 

In  the  City  of  New  York  from  1880- 1890  the 
increase  in  the  number  in  the  industries  was  103 
per  cent,  while  the  returns  of  the  seventy-five 
cities  throughout  the  country  show  also  a  high 
rate  of  increase,     (pp.  39  and  46.) 

The  percentage  of  increase  in  the  City  of  New 
York  was  as  follows: 

Number  of  establishments  reported,  103.18  per  cent. 

Capital  invested,  97.37  per  cent. 

Number  of  hands  cmploj'ed,  48.90  per  cent. 

Wages  paid,  127.89  per  cent. 

Cost  of  material  used,  20.36  per  cent. 

Value  of  products  at  works,  56.20. 

Population  of  the  city,  25.62  per  cent. 

The  general  public  little  realizes  that  the  prob- 
lem of  the  unemployed  in  the  United  States  is  a 
grave  one,  almost  as  grave  as  any  other  phase  of 
the  labor  problem.  The  Massachusetts  Labor 
Report  of  1897,  for  instance,  shows  that  in  1885, 
when  the  State  census  was  taken,  the  average  loss 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  EVOLUTION.  I43 

from  this  source  was  one  and  one-sixth  months 
or  five  weeks  for  all  the  employees  of  the  State. 

Even  in  years  that  are  most  prosperous  the 
total  loss  of  time  on  the  part  of  the  wage  earners 
is  great.  There  are,  every  year,  for  the  workmen 
never  off  the  pay  roll,  holidays  and  days  when 
the  factory  stops  for  repairs,  taking  of  stock, 
etc.,  and  days  that  work  is  slack  in  certain  depart- 
ments, and  days  of  sickness,  and  finally,  in  certain 
important  trades,  there  are  days,  and  even  whole 
seasons,  in  which  work  is  practically  suspended. 
It  is  a  prosperous  year  indeed  when  the  average 
wage  earner  aggregates  forty-four  "full  weeks' 
employment.       (Spahr — Distr.    of    Wealth,    p. 

lOI.) 

The  Massachusetts  State  Board  of  Labor  indi- 
cates that  during  1873-78,  the  industrial  depres- 
sion, that  out  of  318,000  men  in  the  State  en- 
gaged in  mechanical  pursuits,  about  30,000  were 
unemployed.  During  the  depression  of  1882- 
1885  it  is  estimated  that  about  1,000,000  were 
idle.  During  the  depression  following  1893  the 
trades  unions'  estimate  put  the  number  at  about 
4,500,000.  Returns  made  to  Bradstreet's,  the  re- 
sult of  which  were  published  December  2t,,  1893, 
show  that  in  119  cities  801,055  men,  having  about 
1,956,110  persons  dependent  upon  them,  were 
out  of  employment.  Carlos  C.  Classen,  investi- 
gating the  problem  of  unemployed,  found  in  sixty 
cities  523,080  idle  men.  During  the  depression  in 
1885  there  were  in  Massachusetts  816,470  per- 
sons engaged  in  gainful  occupations ;  of  those 
241,589  were  unemployed  during  part  of  the  year. 
The  time  lost,  if  we  consider  only  the  principal 
occupations  of  each  individual,  was  82,744  years. 
The  net  absolute  loss  of  working  time  amounted 
to  78,717.76  years. 


T44  ami:rican  pauperism. 

The  Illinois  Labor  Report  for  1886  published 
returns  upon  this  point  from  representatives  of 
eighty  thousand  wage  earners.  The  summary 
of  these  returns  is  as  follows: 

40,281  Trades  Unionists  average  35.5  weeks — 68  per 
cent  full  time. 

7,0,36  Coal  miners  average  23.4  weeks — 45  per  cent 
full  time. 

5,567  Railroad  men  average  46.1  weeks — 88  per  cent 
full  time. 

32,445  Knights  of  Labor  average  41.5  weeks — 80  per 
cent  full  time. 


"If,"  says  the  commissioner,  "it  be  considered 
necessary  to  make  some  allowance  for  any  sup- 
posed disposition  to  exaggerate  the  case  on  the 
part  of  those  who  have  stated  it.  or  for  error  in 
judgment  on  the  part  of  those  stating  it,  the  con- 
clusion might  be  somewhat  modified  and  still 
show  the  average  working  time  to  be  75  per 
cent." 

In  the  Massachusetts  report  of  1879  the  em- 
ployer returns  show  that  263,000  persons  en- 
gaged in  mechanical  industries  averaged  266.6 
days'  work,  or  approximately  44  weeks.  The 
INIassachusetts  Manufactures  Report  for  1891 
shows  that  the  factories  ran  an  average  of  493^ 
weeks,  and  the  average  number  employed  was 
one-tenth  less  than  the  greatest  number  employed. 
Among  unskilled  workmen  the  amount  of  time 
lost,  according  to  all  reports,  is  much  greater, 
(p.  102.) 

Among  the  causes  reducing  the  earning  capaci- 
ties of  the  laboring  class  many  adverse  industrial 
conditions  of  our  time  have  to  be  taken  into  con- 
sideration. 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  EVOLUTION.  I45 

W.  F.  Willoughby  in  the  Bulletin  of  the  De- 
partment of  Labor  for  1901  (Vol.  VI)  presents 
the  following  data  on  accidents  to  labor. 

TOTAL   RAILWAY  EMPLOYEES   AND   NUMBER   KILLED  AND   IN- 
JURED IN   THE   UNITED   STATES,   YEARS   ENDING  JUNE 
30,    1S99  TO   1899. 

Total 

Year.                     railway  employees.     Killed.  Injured. 

1889   704-743  1,972  20,028 

1890    749,301  2,451  22,396 

1891     784,285  2,660  26,140 

1892    821,415  2,554  28,267 

1893    873,602  2,727  31,729 

1894    779,608  1,823  23,422 

1895    785,034  1,811  25,696 

1896    826,620  1,861  29,969 

1897    823,476  1,693  27,667 

1898    874,558  1,958  31,761 

1899   928,924  2,210  34,923 

NUMBER  OF  EMPLOYEES   FOR  EACH   ONE   KILLED  OR  INJURED 

BY  RAILWAY  ACCIDENTS   IN  THE  UNITED  STATES, 

YEARS  ENDING  JUNE  3O,   1889  TO  1899. 

All  employees. 

Years.                                    Killed.  Injured. 

1889    357  35 

1890    306  33 

1891    295  30 

1892   322  29 

1893  320  28 

1894    428  33 

1895 433  31 

1896    444  28 

1897    486  30 

1898 .447  28 

1899    420  27 

ACCIDENTS. 

The  total  number  of  casualties  to  persons  on  account 
of  railway  accidents,  as  shown  for  the  year  ending 
June  30,  1902,  was  73,250,  the  number  of  persons  killed 
having  been  8,588  and  the  number  injured  64,662.     Of 


146  AMERICAN    PAUPERISM. 

railway  employees,   2,969  were   killed   and   50.524   were 
injured. 

These  figures  show  a  very  considerable  increase  in  the 
number  of  employees  injured,  a  result  due  in  part  to 
the  unusual  increase  in  tralTic  and  the  consequent  use  of 
all  kinds  of  equipment  and  the  employment  of  untried 
men,  and  in  part  to  the  fact  that  since  July  i,  1901,  the 
carriers  have  been  obliged  by  law  to  render  monthly 
reports,  under  oath,  to  the  commission,  detailing  the 
causes  and  circumstances  surrounding  all  accidents  to 
employees.  The  summaries  giving  the  ratio  of  casual- 
ties show  that  I  out  of  every  401  employees  was  killed, 
and  I  out  of  every  24  employees  was  injured.  With 
reference  to  trainmen — including  in  this  term  engine- 
men,  firemen,  conductors,  and  other  trainmen — it  is 
shown  that  one  was  killed  for  every  135  employed,  and 
I  was  injured  for  every  to  employed.  One  passenger 
was  killed  for  every  1,883,706  carried,  and  i  injured  for 
every  97,244  carried.  Ratios  based  upon  the  number 
of  miles  traveled,  however,  show  that  57,072,283  pas- 
senger miles  were  accomplished  for  each  passenger 
killed,  and  2,946,272  passenger  miles  accomplished  for 
each  passenger  injured. 

Mr.  Hoffman  has  prepared  a  lar^e  number  of 
tables  for  accidents  to  miners  in  different  States, 
but  the  general  results  are  summarized  in  the  En- 
gineering and  Mining  Journal  for  November  24, 
1900: 

FATAL    ACCIDENTS    IN    THE    COAL    MINES    IN    THE    UNITED 
STATES    AND   CANADA    189O-1899. 

1890     701'       1895     1,020 

1891      1,076         1896     1,091 

1892      859         1897     909 

1893      919         1898     1,004 

1894     934         1899     1,200 

FATAL   ACCIDENTS   IN    COAL    MINES   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 
AND   CANADA   PER  EACH    1,000   EMPLOYEES,    189O  TO    1899. 

1890  2.43         1895 2.63 

1891  3.30         1896     2.78 

1892  2.51         1897 2.81 

1893  2.46         1898 2.54 

1894  2.47         1899      2.99 


THE   INDUSTRIAL  EVOLUTION'.  I47 

No  country  offers  more  illustrations  of  injury 
to  railroad  employees  than  the  United  States,  in- 
jury caused  by  overwork  on  the  part  of  the  labor- 
ers and  criminal  neglect  on  the  part  of  the  soul- 
less railroad  corporations. 

There  were  killed  on  the  railroads  in  the  United 
States  during  the  year  ending  June  30,  1892, 
2,551  employees,  and  28,268  were  injured.  That 
is,  one  employee  for  every  322  men  at  work  in 
this  industry  was  killed,  and  one  injured  for 
every  29  men  in  the  employ  of  the  railways.  In 
the  case  of  the  trainmen,  the  statistics  for  the 
same  year  show  that  there  was  one  man  killed  for 
every  113  of  this  class  of  employees,  and  one  was 
injured  for  every  10.  (Report  of  the  Statistics  of 
the  Interstate  Commerce  Commissioners  in  1892, 
pp.  68,  78.) 

According  to  the  Report  of  the  United  States 
Geological  Survey  the  number  of  miners  killed 
during  the  year  1901  alone  amounted  to  1,467, 
while  the  number  of  wounded  reached  3.643. 
Each  1,881,668  tons  of  coal  mined  in  the  United 
States  are  paid  by  the  price  of  the  life  of  one 
killed  miner.  In  the  anthracite  mines  of  Penn- 
sylvania alone  513  miners  were  killed  and  1,243 
wounded,  277  women  turned  w'idows  and  624 
children  orphans.  Each  131,524  tons  of  coal 
mined  in  Pennsylvania  is  paid  by  the  price  of  the 
life  of  one  miner.  In  the  bituminous  mines  of 
Pennsylvania  301  miners  were  killed  and  656 
wounded,  184  w^omen  turned  widows  and  412 
children  orphans.  The  mining  belt  teems  with 
cripples,  invalids  and  orphans. 

Industrial  conditions  peculiar  to  our  capital- 
istic system  of  production  lead  not  only  to  acci- 
dents resulting  in  the  death  or  invalidity  of  the 


148  AMERICAX    PAUPERIS^r. 

wag-e  workers,  but  to  the  gradual  chronic  degen- 
eration of  the  working  class  because  of  the  dis- 
ease-begetting- conditions  that  surround  the  work. 
_  The  annual  report  of  the  Labor  Commis- 
sioner of  New  Jersey  for  the  year  1889  (p.  35), 
for  instance,  states  as  follows: 

"The  writer  has  witnessed  the  decline  of  the 
generations  of  pot-makers  within  the  past  forty 
years."  Page  36  shows  data  according  to  which 
of  240  sizers  of  pots  or  makers  of  hats  76  had 
catarrh,  44  rheumatism,  41  coughs,  17  have  had 
"shakes,"  13  had  at  that  time  "the  "shakes,"  12 
constantly  catching  cold  because  of  sudden 
change  of  temperature,  7  complained  of  dyspep- 
sia, 200  of  stimulants  and  tobacco.  The  writer 
ascribes  all  this  to  poor  sanitation. 

Unhealthy  industrial  conditions  lead  to  a  higher 
death  rate  among  laboring  classes  than  among 
the  well-to-do. 

The  IMassachusetts  statistics  show  that  the 
average  death  age  of  a  farmer  is  65.19  years, 
which  is  the  highest  average  in  any  occupation. 
The  average  age  of  death  among  male  factory 
operatives  is  38.92,  and  of  female  operatives  only 
27.98,  which  is  the  lowest  average  on  the  list. 
Next  to  female  operatives  in  lowness  of  average 
wage  earners  with  33.84,  plumbers  with  35.43, 
and  glass  blowers  with  37.81  years. 

According  to  Joseph  Korosy,  the  eminent  statis- 
tician of  Buda  Pesth,  if  we  start  at  the  age  of  25 
with  1,000  persons  of  each  class  there  will  be 
living  at  the  end  of  35  years  of  the  merchants, 
587;  of  the  tailors,  421  ;  of  the  shoemakers,  376; 
of  the  servants,  290 ;  of  day  laborers,  253.  Dur- 
ing this  time  the  total  number  of  years  of  life 
lived  by  the  merchants  was  28,001  and  by  day 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  EVOLUTION.  I49 

laborers  only  22,317.  But  worse  than  this,  of  the 
years  of  Hfe  falling  to  the  lot  of  the  day  laborers, 
1,493  will  be  years  of  sickness,  while  of  years  of 
life  lived  by  merchants  only  824  will  be  years  of 
sickness.  In  other  words  the  merchant  will  have 
33 K  years  in  which  to  provide  for  one  of  sick- 
ness, while  the  day  laborer  will  have  only  13.9 
years  of  health  in  which  to  provide  for  sickness. 
(Mittheilnngen  ueber  Industrielle  Mortalitat, 
1876,  p.  28.) 

According  to  Ansell,  out  of  100,000  children 
born  alive,  there  will  be  living: 

At  end  of  Age  of  Age  of 

first  year.  fifteen.  sixty. 

Peerage    family    93.038  85.S90  51.166 

Upper   class    9I-95S  83.392  53-398 

Clergy    children     91.667  79-536  

English  life  tables    85.051  68.465  36.983 

Mr,  John  IMcMackin,  Commissioner  of  Labor 
of  the  State  of  New  York,  gives  the  following 
data  in  his  report  for  the  year  1900  (p.  62,  etc.). 
English  statistics  show  that  between  the  ages  of 
25  and  65  the  death  rate  among  workers  of 
earthen  ware  is  fully  three  times  as  large  as  that 
among  clergymen.  Such  an  enormous  disparity 
shows  that  thousands  of  workingmen  die  long 
before  they  have  produced  all  the  wealth  they 
were  capable  of  producing,  if  their  health  had 
been  preserved  by  proper  care.  Many  other 
trades  are  equally  injurious  to  health,  as  will  be 
seen  in  the  following  table  of  comparative  mor- 
tality of  certain  occupations  in  England  in  the 
years  1890,  1891  and  1892: 


I50 


AMERICAN"    PAUPERISM. 


OCCUPATIONS    WITH    HIGHEST    AND    LOWEST    MOR- 
TALITY   FIGURES    IN    ENGLAND,    1890-2. 
(Supplement   to   55th   Annual    Report   of   the    Registrar-General.) 


Comparative 
Occupation.        mortality  figure. 

Dock  laborer   I1829 

File   maker    1,810 

Lead   worker    1.783 

Inn,   hotel  servant    1.725 

Potter,  earthenware  manu- 
facturer      1,706 

Innkeeper,   servant,   etc. ..1,650 
Costermonger,    hawker    ..1,652 

Innkeeper     1,642 

Coal  heaver   1.528 

Cutler, scissors  makcr.i,si6 
General    laborer     (in- 
dustrial   districts)..  1,509 

Glass  manufacturer   1.487 

Brewer    1.427 

General  laborer  (Lon- 
don)   1,413 

Tool,    scissors,    file,    saw, 

etc.,  maker 1,412 

Tin  miner 1,409 

Manufacturing  chemist. . .  1,392 

Copper  worker    1,381 

Wool,  silk,  etc.,  dyer. ...  1,370 

Seaman,   etc 1,352 

Slater,   tiler    1,322 

Chimney  sweep   1,311 

Lead   miner    1,310 

Nail,    anchor,    chain,    etc., 

maker    1,301 

Carman,    carrier    1,284 

Copper   miner    1,230 

Gunsmith    1,228 

Messenger,      porter      (not 
railway  or  government).  1,222 

General    laborer    1,221 

Transport  service    ...1,216 
Musician,  music  master. .  1,214 

Bargeman   1,199 

Zinc  worker 1.198 

Stone,  slate  quarrier 1.176 

Coach,  cab  service 1.153 

Coal      miner      (Mon- 
mouths  hire    and 

South    Wales) i,i4S 

Cotton,       etc.,       manufac- 
turer     1.141 


Comparative 
Occupation.       mortality  figure. 
Lowest. 
Silk,    satin,    etc.,    manufac- 
turer   921 

Baker,    confectioner    920 

Shoemaker,  bootmaker  ....920 

Commercial  clerk 915 

Blacksmith,  whitesmith  ....914 
Coal      miner      (West 

Riding)    912 

Paper  manufacturer   904 

Tallow,  soap  manu- 
facturer     897 

Maltster     884 

Carpet,  rug  manufacturer.  .873 

Shopkeeper     859 

Other  occupied  males 847 

Fisherman    Sa.^ 

Miller     845 

Publisher     833 

Railway   guard,    etc 825 

Barrister,  solicitor 821 

Railway  engine  driv- 
er,  guard,   etc 818 

Railway  engine  driver   ....810 

Ironmonger     807 

Coal   merchant    803 

Engine     driver     (not     rail- 
way,  etc.) 786 

Carpenter,  joiner   783 

Railway  official   clerk    781 

Artist,  engraver,  etc 778 

Wheelwright     778 

Coal  miner  (Durham 
and  Northumber- 
land)      774 

Ironstone  miner 774 

Sawyer 768 

Domestic  indoor  servant. .  .757 

Tanner,   fellmonger 756 

Brick  tile  burner   741 

Coal  miner  (Derby- 
shire and  Notting- 
hamshire)      727 

Shipwright     713 

Lace  manufacturer   709 

Hosiery   manufacturer    ....698 
Laborer     in      agricul- 
tural group   666 

Grocer    664 

Agricultural   Laborer    632' 

Schoolmaster     604 

Agriculturalist     602 

Farmer,  grazier    563 

Gardener,   etc 553 

Clergyman     533 


THE   INDUSTRIAL  EVOLUTIOX.  I5I 

Occupations  in  the  first  column  have  a  mor- 
tality above  and  those  in  the  second  column  be- 
low the  average  for  all  occupied  males  (953). 
Among  the  48  other  occupational  groups  39  are 
above  and  9  below  this  figure.  The  standard  of 
comparison  (1,000)  is  the  mortality  figure  for  all 
males. 

Indented  lines  indicate  sub-classes  or  occupa- 
tions. 

The  number  of  deaths  of  male  persons  between 
25  and  65  years  of  age  in  the  years  1891  and  1892 
is  compared  with  the  number  of  living  persons 
exercising  the  various  occupations,  as  returned 
by  the  census  of  1891.  The  mortality  of  all  males 
within  the  age  period,  25-65  years,  is  then  taken 
as  a  standard  with  which  the  death  rate  in  the 
various  occupations  is  compared.  The  unoccu- 
pied male  had  a  death  rate  more  than  twice  as 
large  as  that  of  all  males,  the  exact  ratio  being  as 
2,215  to  1,000,  while  the  occupied  males  of  course 
had  a  lower  mortality,  thus : 

All  males   (standard)    1,000 

Unoccupied  males   2,215 

Occupied   males    (England)    953 

Occupied   males    (London)    1, 147 

Occupied  males   (industrial  districts)    1,248 

Occupied  males   (agricultural  district)    681 

The  mortality  among  male  workers  in  the  in- 
dustrial districts  is  all  but  twice  as  heavy  as  it  is 
in  the  agricultural  districts,  thus  showing  the  ex- 
pensiveness  to  the  community  of  noxious  pur- 
suits. Regarding  men  simply  as  working  ani- 
mals the  community  cannot  afford  to  permit  such 
a  disproportionate  mortality.  If  all  these  work- 
ers were  slaves  we  mav  be  sure  that  their  owners 


152  AMERICAN    PAUPERISM. 

would  take  care  to  preserve  their  lives  beyond 
the  present  average. 

If  we  recur  to  the  preceding  table  of  occupa- 
tional mortality  the  disparities  are  even  more 
striking.  At  the  bottom  of  the  list  are  clergymen 
(533)  ^^^  ^t  the  top  dock  laborers  (1,829). 
School  teachers  stand  low  in  the  list  (604). 
Medical  men,  who  are  in  constant  contact  with 
disease  and  who  work  most  irregularly,  have, 
nevertheless,  a  lower  mortality  (966)  than  the 
majority  of  factory  operatives. 

These  official  figures  from  the  fifty-fifth  annual 
report  of  the  Registrar  General  of  England  sim- 
ply confirm  tlie  conclusions  of  physicians  familiar 
with  the  lives  of  factory  operatives.  A  French 
physician  who  has  made  an  exhaustive  study  of 
this  subject  (Dr.  Ilja  (Elias)  Sachine,  Le  Journe 
du  Huit  Heures  au  Point  de  Vue  de  1 'Hygiene  et 
de  la  Medicine,  Lyon,  1900),  concludes  that  the 
abnormal  sickness  and  mortality  among  working 
people  is  due,  not  simply  to  poisonous  and  nox- 
ious substances  in  the  materials  of  work,  but  also 
to  fatigue  which  affects  the  nerves.  A  few  of 
the  conclusions  of  Dr.  Sachine  will  be  of  interest 
to  us. 

"Mortality  and  sickness  are  unusually  pro- 
nounced among  working  classes.  Their  average 
death  rate,  compared  with  oth6r  classes,  is  espe- 
cially high  beyond  the  age  of  35  or  40,  i.  e.,  the 
age  at  which  fatigue  attains  the  ascendancy  over 
the  endurance  and  power  of  resistance  of  the  indi- 
vidual, however  great  his  physical  strength  may 
have  been  at  first.  The  bodily  development  of  the 
factory  oi)erative  remains  inferior  to  that  found 
in  other  social  classes.  Excessive  n'ork  and  long 
Jioitrs  are  the  causes  that  have  pozvcrfitlly  pro- 


Till':   IXDUSLKIAL   KNOLUTIOX.  I53 

iitoted  the  use  of  stiniiilaiits  and  intoxicating 
liquors. 

The  harmful  influence  of  the  long  zvorking 
hours  are  not  only  directly  upon  those  zvJio  work, 
but  also  upon  future  generations  and  threatens 
the  vigor  and  full  development  of  the  human 
race." 

We  see  that  the  laborer  is  exploited  by  the  capi- 
talistic system  of  production — as  a  producer — by 
.offering  the  lowest  remuneration  for  the  most  in- 
tense work  and  as  a  consumer  by  screwing  up 
prices  to  the  highest  possible  point  for  commodi- 
ties he  has  to  use  in  order  to  exist  and  propagate 
his  kind.  The  result  of  this  most  unmerciful  ex- 
ploitation of  the  producers  by  the  parasitic  classes 
of  society  appear  in  the  distribution  of  income  and 
property  in  the  United  States. 

Professor  Chas.  B.  Spahr,  of  Columbia  Uni- 
versity, wrote  an  essay  on  the  present  distribu- 
tion of  wealth  in  the  United  States  and  published 
it  in  1896. 

From  this  essay  we  will  here  make  a  few  ex- 
tracts. 

"Distribution  of  property  by  classes. 

The  Massachusetts  Labor  Bureau  in  its  report 
for  1873  presented  the  following  data :  'The  num- 
ber of  people  paying  taxes  upon  property  was 
nearly  four-fifths  of  the  whole  number  of  family 
residents.  Among  those  paying  such  taxes,  how- 
ever, four-fifths  held  less  than  one-fifth  of  the 
property,  while  one-fiftieth  held  nearly  as  much 
property  as  all  the  remainder.'  The  data  pub- 
lished twenty  years  later  by  the  assessing  depart- 
ment of  the  city  of  Boston  showed  that  the  whole 
number  of  property  taxpayers  was  less  than  one- 
fifth  the  number  of  families  residing  in  Boston. 


154  AMERICAN    PAUPERISM. 

For  the  same  year  the  Hst  of  property  owners 
taxed  more  than  $i,ooo  showed  them  to  possess 
more  than  half  the  taxable  property."     (p.  52.) 

Mr.  George  K.  Holmes'  (quoted  by  Chas.  B. 
Spahr)  data  shows  that  one-tenth  of  the  families 
held  about  three  times  as  much  property  as  the 
other  nine-tenths,     (p.  55.) 

The  returns  received  from  New  York  City  in 
1892  were  as  follows:  Only  about  one-fourth  of 
the  men  who  died  during  the  three  months  end- 
ing December,  1892,  left  any  property  whatever 
except  their  clothing  and  household  furniture. 
If  the  death  rate  w^as  normal  during  the  period 
covered  the  returns  indicated  about  one  hundred 
and  ten  thousand  property-owning  families.  The 
whole  number  of  families  in  the  city  was  three 
hundred  and  thirty  thousand.  In  other  words, 
two-thirds  of  the  families  are  in  a  strict  sense  of 
the  word  propertyless. 

The  savings  bank  argument,  so  frequently  em- 
ployed by  conservative  statesmen  and  economists, 
is  utterly  fallacious  as  can  be  seen  from  the  fol- 
lowing facts :  In  New  York  City  the  number  of 
savings  bank  accounts  is  nearly  twice  as  great  as 
the  number  of  families.  Yet  two-thirds  of  the 
families  not  only  possess  no  savings  bank  ac- 
count, but  no  registered  property  of  any  descrip- 
tion. The  bulk  of  the  deposit  belongs  to  a 
comparatively  small  class  of  well-to-do  citizens. 

Respecting  the  distriluition  of  wealth  among 
the  propertied  classes,  the  returns  for  New  York 
City  showed  that  the  small  estates  outnumber 
the  medium  and  large  ones,  the  ratio  being  nearly 
three  to  one  in  favor  of  estates  less  than  $5,000. 
In  value,  all  of  these  smaller  estates  combined 
represented  but  four  per  cent  of  the  property, 


TKI-:   IXDUSTKIAI,  EVOLUTION".  I55 

while  the  comparaiively  few  estates  exceeding 
$50,000  was  three  times  as  valuable  as  all  the 
remainder. 

According  to  the  data  furnished  by  the  Surro- 
gate Court  during  the  years  from  October,  1892- 
September,  1896,  the  properties  over  $50,000 
aggregated  five  times  as  much  as  those  smaller 
than  that  sum.  The  number  of  the  possessors  of 
the  large  estates  was  but  six  per  cent  of  the  prop- 
erty owners,  and  represented  but  two  per  cent  of 
the'  heads  of  families  dying  during  these  two 
years,     (pp.  50-60.) 

The  real  estate  within  New  York  City  is  more 
valuable  than  all  the  real  estate  in  New  England, 
exclusive  of  the  City  of  Boston,  and  more  val- 
uable than  all  the  real  estate  in  the  eight  com- 
monwealth's between  the  Potomac  and  Texas. 
An  abnormal  concentration  of  both  wealth  and 
poverty  is  known  to  exist  everywhere  within  its 
borders,  (p.  61.)  The  distribution  of  wealth 
in  Brooklyn  is  more  typical  of  ttie  large  cities 
throughout  the  country.  The  estates  worth  over 
$50,000  contained  over  twice  as  much  property 
as  all  the  remainder;  while  the  aggregate  hold- 
ings of  middle  and  poorer  classes — those  owning 
less  than  $50,000 — was  but  seven  per  cent  of  the 
total. 

Approximately  one-eighth  of  the  families  of 
the  nation — city,  town  and  country — hold  more 
than  $5,000. 

The  census  investigation  showed  that  in  New 
York  City  but  61-3  per  cent  of  the  families 
owned  their  homes,     (pp.  66-68.) 

The  conclusion  reached,  therefore,  is  as  fol- 
lows : 

Less  than  half  the  families  are  propertyless. 


156  AMERICAX    PAUPKRISM. 

Sez'en-eighths  of  tlie  families  hold  but  one- 
eighth  of  the  national  zvealth,  zvhile  one  per  cent 
of  the  families  hold  more  than  the  remaining 
ninety-nine.     (p.  69.) 

The  nation's  income. 

The  profit  of  manufacturers,  according-  to  the 
Massachusetts  Report  of  the  Bureau  of  Labor 
Statistics  for  1890,  including  interest,  rent,  taxes, 
and  earnings  for  superintendence,  was  approxi- 
mately tzvo-ihirds  of  the  zvages  of  the  employes. 

The  zvealthiest  ten  per  cent  of  American  fami- 
lies received  approximately  the  same  income  as 
the  remaining  ninety  per  cent. 

The  average  family  income  from  labor  should 
not  be  put  higher  than  $300  in  the  tozvns  and 
$S00  in  the  rural  districts.  As  three-fifths  live 
in  the  rural  districts  the  average  zvoiild  be  $380 
for  all. 

More  than  five-sixths  of  the  income  of  the 
zvealthiest  class  is  received  by  125,000  richest 
families,  zvhile  less  than  one-half  of  the  income 
of  the  zvorking  classes  is  received  by  the  poorest, 
6,500,000.  In  other  zvords,  one  per  cent  of  our 
families  receive  nearly  one-fourth  of  the  national 
income,  while  fifty  per  cent  receive  barely  one- 
fifth.  One-eighth  of  the  families  in  America  re- 
ceive more  than  half  of  the  aggregate  income, 
and  the  richest  one  per  cent  receives  a  larger  in- 
come than  the  poorest  fifty  per  cent.  In  fact, 
the  small  class  of  zvcalfhy  property  ozvners  re- 
ceive from  property  alone  as  large  an  income  as 
half  of  our  people  receive  from  property  and 
labor. 

In  connection  with  these  facts,  it  is  very  in- 
structive to  see  which  of  the  classes — the  rich  or 
the  poor — bear  the  burden  of  taxation. 


THE   INDUSTRIAL  EVOLUTlOiX.  1 57 

Our  autliority  maintains  that  nearly  three- 
quarters  of  our  national  revenue  is  raised  from 
taxes  resting  upon  Hquor,  tobacco,  sugar,  and 
clothing.  (Our  national  revenues  have  for  sev- 
eral years  aggregated  a  little  less  than  four  hun- 
dred millions.  All  but  tv^enty  millions  of  this 
sum  is  raised  by  custom  and  internal  revenue 
duties.) 

Mr.  Spahr  calculates:  "When  we  consider 
only  the  revenues  actually  received  by  the  govern- 
ment, the  conclusion  inevitably  reached  is  that 
the  wealthy  class  pays  less  than  one-tenth  of  the 
indirect  taxes,  the  well-to-do  class,  one-quarter; 
and   the   relatively    poorer   classes,   two-thirds." 

(pp.  141-145-)  .    . 

The  resume  of  Mr.  Spahr  is  so  characteristic 
that  we  cannot  abstain  from  quoting  some  of  its 
parts. 

"In  our  own  country  the  Civil  War  overthrew 
the  once  domniant  cause  of  the  separation  of 
classes,  but  called  into  activity  new  forces  work- 
ing to  the  same  end.  The  dominant  (social-eco- 
nomic) forces  to-day  are  all  working  toward  the 
concentration  of  wealth  in  the  cities,  and  the  im- 
poverishment of  country  districts.  In  the  cities 
these  forces  are  working  towards  a  yet  narrower 
concentration.  The  wealth  of  the  cities  is  as 
much  more  concentrated  as  it  is  greater  than  the 
wealth  of  rural  districts.  Taking  city  and  coun- 
try together,  we  found  that  the  great  body  of 
small  property  oivners  hold  barely  one-eighth  of 
the  national  ivealth,  and  that  one  family  of 
every  one  hundred  ozvns  as  much  as  all  the  re- 
mainder. 

"Turning  to  the  incomes  of  families,  we  found 
that  in  this  country,  as  well  as  in  Europe,  tzvo- 


158  AMERICAN    PAUi'KRISM. 

fifths  of  the  products  of  industry  go  as  the  share 
of  capital,  quite  apart  fro)ii  tJie  earnings  of  cap- 
italist classes  froin  personal  exertions.  One-tenth 
of  the  families  have  the  same  aggregate  income 
as  the  remaining  nine-tenths,  while  the  one  per 
cent  at  the  top  has  as  much  as  the  fifty  per  cent 
at  the  bottom.  Turning  finally  to  the  field  of  tax- 
ation, we  found  that  the  jiublic  is  taxing  as  large 
a  percentage  from  the  incomes  insufficient  for  the 
healthful  and  decent  living  as  from  incomes 
morally  perilous  to  their  possessors,  and  is  plac- 
ing upon  the  property  of  those  struggling  for  in- 
dependence, burdens  fourfold  heavier  than  upon 
the  property  of  those  already  rich."     (pp.   158, 

I59-) 

The  Iiumiliating  conclusion  that  the  wage- 
worker  of  the  United  States,  the  man  who  sup- 
plies the  "land  of  the  free"  with  food,  shelter, 
clothing  and  other  necessaries  of  life,  is  over- 
worked and  underpaid  by  his  employers  and  over- 
taxed by  the  State,  whose  nominal  citizen  he  is, 
and  also  the  conclusion  that  the  toiling  masses  of 
the  United  States  have  to  be  classed  in  the  cate- 
gory of  the  "respectable  poor"  force  themselves 
upon  us  with  the  irresistable  logic  of  a  mathe- 
matical certainty.  Indeed,  we  have  seen  that  the 
yearly  income  of  an  average  wage-worker's 
family  is  barely  sufficient  to  keep  it  on  the  brink 
of  semi-starvation  even  when  there  is  work  all 
the  year  round.  Even  of  this  small  income  he  is 
by  no  means  certain.  Slight  disturbances  in  busi- 
ness, illness,  the  whim  or  fancy  of  the  "bread 
giving"  employer,  any  accident  may  in  the 
twinkling  of  an  eye  destroy  the  unstable  equil- 
ibrium of  the  proletarian's  economic  status  and 
turn  him  into  a  pauper.     That  there  is  only  one 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  EVOLUTION.  I59 

fatal  step  from  the  respectable  poverty  of  a 
"wage-worker"  to  the  demoralizing  pauperism  of 
the  "outdoor  relief"  and  the  "indoor  relief"  va- 
riety may  be  illustrated  by  the  following  "story 
of  John  and  Mary  Baker"  as  related  by  Ernest 
P.  Bicknell,  of  the  Chicago  Bureau  of  Charities, 
in  the  Report  of  the  XXXIII  National  Confer- 
ence of  Charities : 

"John  and  Alary  Baker  lived  in  a  little  country 
town  in  Southern  Wisconsin.  When  the  World's 
Fair  was  being  laid  out  and  the  great  buildings 
were  going  up,  a  young  man,  who  was  a  friend 
of  John  Baker,  went  down  to  Chicago  and  got  a 
job  of  work  on  the  Fair  grounds.  John  Baker 
was  a  good  carpenter,  and  his  friend  wrote  that 
everybody  could  get  work  at  good  pay,  and  that 
he  had  better  come  down.  So  John  went,  and 
took  Mary  and  the  two  babies.  He  got  work  and 
steady  pay.  When  the  Fair  was  finished,  there 
followed  a  terrible  industrial  depression.  John 
Baker  lost  his  job  and  could  not  get  another. 
He  went  up  and  down  and  looked  at  the  half 
finished  buildings ;  but  the  whole  town  was  over- 
built, and  there  was  nothing  for  him  to  do.  His 
savings  gradually  wasted  away,  and  after  awhile 
he  had  to  give  up  his  flat,  for  which  he  was  pay- 
ing $15,  in  a  good  neighborhood,  and  move  into 
another  place  where  he  could  rent  rooms  for  $io 
in  a  neighborhood  not  so  good.  He  went  on  strug- 
gling and  doing  what  he  could  in  the  way  of  odd 
jobs,  and  Mary  took  in  a  couple  of  boarders  for 
awhile.  They  managed  to  get  along  for  a  year 
or  two  that  way. 

Times  continued  hard.  John  could  not  make 
both  ends  meet,  and  his  savings  were  all  gone. 
They  moved  to  a  place  where  the  rent  was  six 


l6o  AMERICAN    PAUPt:RIS:M. 

or  seven  dollars  a  month — in  a  dreadful  locality. 
They  had  to  move,  as  they  were  to  be  put  out 
of  their  rooms  for  non-payment  of  rent.  The 
third  flat  into  which  they  moved  had  no  drainage. 
The  rooms  were  dark,  the  surroundings  vile,  and 
the  neighborhood  terrible.  There  was  no  grass 
])lot  or  trees,  nothing  but  a  grim  and  sordid  life 
on  a  very  low  plane.  Their  life  began  to  grow 
bad  in  this  wretched  place,  and  who  is  there  to 
say  a  word  of  condemnation? 

"Mary  became  cross  and  irritable  and  nervous. 
John's  discouragement  grew  on  him,  and  he  got 
shabby  and  run  down  at  the  heel,  and  began  to 
drink.  After  awhile  it  came  about  that,  when  he 
went  into  a  business  house  to  apply  for  a  job,  he 
went  in  with  a  hang-dog,  sullen  air  which  showed 
that  he  did  not  expect  to  get  a  job.  and  the  em- 
ployer was  satisfied  at  a  glance  that  he  did  not 
want  any  man  like  that  around. 

"When  this  state  of  affairs  had  been  reached 
the  eldest  girl,  Annie,  who  was  not  twelve  years 
old,  was  taken  out  of  school  and  put  to  work  in  a 
box  factory.  She  began  to  run  about  at  night, 
and  the  mother  was  too  feeble  to  look  after  her. 
The  boy,  Harry,  ran  the  streets,  and  fell  into 
bad  company,  of  course.  He  broke  into  a  vacant 
house  with  some  boys  one  day  and  stole  lead 
pipe,  and  was  arrested  and  sent  to  the  House  of 
Correction.  Mary  came  down  with  typhoid  fever 
just  about  the  time  that  the  landlord  served  a 
notice  of  eviction.  Then  a  neighbor  came  to  the 
Associated  Charities  and  said,  'Here  is  a  sad 
case.  The  woman  is  good,  but  the  family  is  a 
bad  lot.  The  man  is  worthless,  the  boy  a  crim- 
inal.' Now,  that  is  what  the  Bureau  of  Charities 
found  when  its  attention  was  first  called  to  the 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  EVOLUTION.  l6l 

case  of  John  and  Mary  Baker.  Here  was  a  con- 
dition of  affairs  that  not  a  single  charity  asso- 
ciation on  the  face  of  the  earth  could  have  cured. 
No  charitable  organization  ever  created,  or  that 
ever  will  be  created,  could  have  taken  up  that 
situation  and  quickly  and  permanently  cured  it. 
A  long  struggle  was  inevitable,  if  this  family  was 
to  be  brought  back  up  the  long  steep  incline  down 
which  it  had  gone.  Our  ambition  to  see  results, 
or  our  failure  to  read  the  facts  in  their  true 
significance,  lead  us  to  imagine  that  we  can  cure 
a  case  like  that  in  a  week.  It  leads  some  of  us 
to  think  that  by  giving  an  order  of  groceries  we 
can  cure  such  a  case,  or  that  by  sending  the  doc- 
tor around  and  giving  IMary  a  dose  of  medicine 
we  have  done  all  that  is  required.  What  we  need 
to  remember  is,  that  this  has  been  a  good  family, 
and  that  it  had  moved  down  this  incline  for  five 
years.  It  is  folly  to  imagine  that  anything  but 
long  years  of  care  in  helping  and  guiding  and  lift- 
ing would  bring  it  again  up  to  the  place  of  self 
respect  that  it  had  once  occupied.  The  Associ- 
ated Charities  could  not  have  done  anything  by 
itself,  the  doctor  could  not  do  much ;  no  single 
society,  no  agency  of  any  sort,  was  adequate  to 
cope  with  that  situation." 

The  Associated  Charities  of  any  great  city 
knows  not  merely  one  family,  but  thousands,  like 
that  of  John  and  ]Mary  Baker. 

The  following  data  show  the  returns  of  27,961 
cases  of  applicants  for  relief,  which  were  investi- 
gated by  the  charitable  organizations  in  1887: 

Worthy  of  continuous  relief,  2,888,  or  10.3  per  cent. 
Worthy  of  temporary  relief,  7,451,  or  26.6  per  cent. 
Need  work  rather  than  relief,  11,280,  or  40.4  per  cent. 
Unworthy  of  relief  (?),  6,342,  or  22."]  per  cent. 


l62  AMERICAN'    PAUPERISM. 

^Ir.  Kellog',  who  submitted  the  report  contain- 
ing the  data  to  the  Conference  of  Charities,  says 
that  among  all  the  societies  of  the  country  there 
is  a  notable  unity  of  opinion  that  only  from  31 
to  2)7  per  cent,  or  say  one-third,  of  the  cases 
actually  treated  were  in  need  of  that  material 
assistance  for  which  no  office  or  friendly  counsel 
or  restraint  could  compensate.  The  logical  ap- 
plication of  this  statement  to  the  zvhole  country  is, 
that  tzvo-thirds  of  its  real  or  simulated  destitu- 
tions could  be  iciped  out  by  a  more  perfect  adjust- 
ment of  labor. 

The  summary  of  returns  from  Baltimore,  Bos- 
ton and  Nezv  Yoriv  charities  for  the  years  i8gi, 
i8q2,  i8qs  shoiu  that  over  55  per  cent  of  the  cases 
should  liave  work  rather  than  relief ;  9.1  per  cent 
should  have  no  relief  (  ?)  ;  58  per  cent  should  be 
disciplined  (  !)  ;  7.4  per  cent  should  have  visita- 
tions and  advice  only  ;  and  that  only  about  42.64 
per  cent  needed  direct  relief  of  any  kind.  The 
causes  of  poverty  in  Bufifalo  are  classified  as 
shown  on  the  following  page. 

A  glance  at  that  table  will  convince  us  that 
industrial  conditions  leading  to  lack  of  employ- 
ment, insufficient  earnings,  etc.,  are  responsible 
for  the  largest  percentage  among  the  causes  of 
pauperism. 

Drink  is  considered  among  the  most  important 
individual  causes  of  poverty.  The  fact  is,  how- 
ever, that  drink  is  rather  an  effect  of  demoraliza- 
tion caused  by  extreme  poverty,  than  a  cause  of 
the  last.  Intense  exhausting  labor,  irregular  em- 
ployment, bad  air,  inadequate  and  ill-prepared 
food,  cause  a  craving  for  stimulants. 

Prof.  Amos  G.  Warner  says:  "The  ravages 
of  intemperance  are  most  plainly  to  be  traced  in 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  FA'OLUTION. 


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164  AMERICAX    ]>AL'1'EK1S-\I. 

classes  above  the  pau])er  class."  In  passing 
through  wards  of  almshouses  Prof,  A.  G.  Warner 
has  been  frequently  surprised  at  the  number  of 
inmates  who  were  said  to  be  temperate  and  of 
whom  the  statement  was  apparently  true,  W. 
Benson  Lewis,  who  writes  in  the  Fortnightly  Re- 
view, September,  1893,  "On  the  Conditions  of 
Crime,"  finds  that,  territorially,  crime  rather  than 
pauperism  seems  to  accompany  drunkenness. 

The  same  argument  applies  to  so-called  shift- 
lessness  and  other  alleged  indiz'idual  causes  of 
poverty.  The  vices  of  the  poor  are  not  the 
causes,  but  the  results  of  the  demoralization  and 
physical  deterioration  brought  about  by  indigence, 
A  half-starved,  ill-clad,  badly  housed,  and  igno- 
rant proletarian  cannot  be  expected  to  be  pru- 
dent and  far-seeing,  selfreliant  and  provident. 
The  physical  and  mental  deterioration  due  to  the 
aiiti-hygenic  conditions  of  life  and  work  lead  to 
sickness  and  poverty.  To  the  sickness  and  death 
of  the  natural  family  bread-winner,  the  superin- 
tendent of  Chicago  Charities  attributes  the  desti- 
tution of  a  large  majority  of  the  dependents  in 
Chicago.  He  said,  "The  state  of  the  average 
family  found  in  destitution,  in  a  state  of  dis- 
couragement and  resignation  to  their  lot  of  pov- 
erty, can  almost  invariably  be  traced  back  to  one 
cause — sickness  and  death  and  doctor's  bills  after- 
wards, followed  by  utter  destitution,  or  the 
widow  is  left  with  a  large  family  and  the  result  is 
inevitable.  Where  the  natural  bread-winner  is 
either  dead  or  invalidated,  the  result  is  depend- 
ence." 

That  physical  and  mental  weakness  caused  by 
poverty  in  its  turn  causes  poverty  and  leads  to 
the  perpetuation  of  pauperism,  is'  illustrated  by 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  EVOLUTION.  165 

Startling  data  about  hereditary  pauperism.  Of 
12,614  inmates  in  the  ahiishouses  of  New  York 
in  the  early  seventies  397,  or  nearly  3.15  per  cent, 
were  the  offspring  of  pauper  fathers;  1,361,  or 
10.74  per  cent,  of  pauper  mothers.  The  de- 
pendence dated  back  to  the  third  generation  in 
55  cases  on  the  paternal  and  92  cases  on  the 
maternal  side,  1,122  had  pauper  brothers,  951 
pauper  sisters,  143  pauper  uncles  and  133  pauper 
aunts.  About  22  per  cent  of  the  children  of 
poorhouse  parents  were  found  to  be  of  the  de- 
pendent or  delinquent  classes.  The  percentage 
of  those  who  were  a  charge  upon  the  public 
raised  a  little  more  than  25  per  cent.  The  influ- 
ence of  the  environment  of  the  poor  born  in  the 
poorhouses  and  the  slums  on  the  tendency  to 
the  perpetuation  of  pauperism  seems  to  be  obvi- 
ous. The  children  of  the  poor  are  foredoomed  by 
the  very  conditions  of  their  childlife  to  pauper- 
ism. (Mr.  Booth  puts  pauper  associations  and 
hereditary  together  as  contributory  causes  16.7 
per  cent  for  England.) 

We  have  proven  that  the  main,  if  not  only, 
cause  of  poverty  in  our  time  is  social-economic 
parasitism  with  which  our  present  society  is 
honeycombed.  We  may  repeat,  with  perfect  con- 
sciousness of  stating  actual  conditions,  the  lines 
addressed  by  Shelley  to  the  "Men  of  England," 
but  applicable  to  all  the  children  of  toil  in  the 
United  States  and  elsewhere : 

Children  of  toil,  wherefore  plough 
For  the  lords  who  lay  ye  low? 
Wherefore  weave  with  toil  and  care 
The  rich  robes  your  tyrants  wear? 

Wherefore  feed,  and  clothe,  and  save, 
From  the  cradle  to  the  grave 


l66  AMI^KICAX    rAUl'i:KIS.\l. 

Those  ungrateful  drones  wlio  would 
Drain  your  sweat — nay,  drink  your  blood? 

Wherefore,  bees  of  America,  forge 
Many  a  weapon,  chain,  and  scourge; 
That  those  stingless  drones  may  spoil 
The  forced  product  of  your  toil  ? 

Have  ye  leisure,  comfort,  calm, 
Shelter,   food,  love's  gentle  balm? 
Or  what  is  it  ye  buy  so  dear 
With  your  pain  and  your  fear? 

The  seed  you  sow,  another  reaps ; 
The  wealth  ye  find,  another  keeps; 
The  robes  ye  weave,  another  wears; 
The  arms  yc  forge,  another  bears. 

Sow  seed,  but  let  no  tyrant  reap ; 
Find  wealth — let  no  imposter  heap; 
Weave  robes — let  not  the  idle  wear ; 
Forge  arms  in  your  defense  to  bear. 


THE  ABOLITION   OF   POVERTY. 

"It  is  a  repulsive  subject!" 

"It  is  a  baneful  misconception  of  modern  civ- 
ilization !" 

"It  is  a  socialistic  atrocity!" 

Such  were  the  opinions  of  the  middle  class 
Philistines,  the  Bourgeois,  about  the  picture  of 
Jean  Weber  at  the  last  exhibition  of  the  "Salon" 
in  Paris. 

This  picture  is  a  large  work,  superb  in  colors 
and  superbly  drawn.  It  exercises  an  irresistible 
fascination  on  the  spectator,  it  enchants  the  ob- 
server.- Everybody  at  the  "Salon"  gazed  at  it; 
everybody  talked  about  it.  It  aroused  anger  and 
indignation  among  the  respectable  parasitic  class- 
es of  the  French  metropolis.  It  was  greeted  with 
intense  enthusiasm  by  the  friends  of  the  masses 
who  toil  and  lead  a  life  of  poverty. 

If  the  writer  of  these  lines  possessed  the  genius 
of  Edwin  Markham,  he  would  produce  a  poem 
about  Weber's  picture,  even  more  stirring  than 
"The  Man  with  the  Hoe." 

A  huge  d}'namo  is  in  rapid  motion.  On  a  steel 
cylinder  is  perched  a  nude  female  figure,  whose 
red  hair  stands  on  end  by  the  force  of  electricity 
or  terror.  A  ponderous  fly-wheel  is  crushing  to 
a  hideous  pulp  tender  and  innocent  children, 
delicate  and  beautiful  women,  vigorous  men, 
representing  the  flower  of  the  human  race,  old 
men  and  w^omen.  A  river  of  human  blood  flows 
beneath. 

167 


l68  AMERICAN    i'AUl'liUISM. 

Let  us  supplement  this  picture  by  another  one. 

Let  us  imagine  that  this  river  of  human  blood 
is  being  collected  in  a  huge  basin  called  "The 
World's  Market,"  where  the  magicians  of  the 
Board  of  Trade,  the  wizards  of  gigantic  trusts 
and  monopolies,  the  conjurers  of  modern  ma- 
chine production,  the  kings  of  the  finance  turn 
this  human  blood  into  glittering  gold  and  coin  it 
into  money  to  fill  their  private  treasuries,  their 
safes  and  vaults. 

These  two  pictures,  Weber's  and  ours,  repre- 
sent our  modern  parasitic  civilization  called 
Capitalism,  as  it  is  in  reality,  as  Cannibalism. 

The  huge  dynamo  of  Weber's  picture  repre- 
sents the  social-economic  mechanism  of  modern 
machine  production.  The  ponderous  flywheel 
symbolizes  the  social-economic  powers  concen- 
trated in  the  hands  of  the  non-producers,  called 
Capitalists. 

And  the  men,  women  and  children  crushed  into 
pulp  are  the  toiling  masses. 

The  most  remarkable  feature  about  the  mur- 
derous flywheel  of  Capitalism  is  that  it  is  en- 
tirely the  product  of  the  labor  of  its  crusheci 
victims,  the  proletarians. 

The  knowledge  of  the  laws  of  Xature.  the  in- 
ventive genius  and  the  mechanical  skill  that  were 
necessary  for  the  production  of  the  flywheel  of 
modern  industry,  are  the  common  heritage  of  the 
human  race. 

The  huge  dynamo  moving  the  flywheel  of 
modern  industry  concentrates  blind  natural 
forces,  that  instead  of  being  utilized  for  the 
benefit  of  the  entire  human  race  are  exploited  in 
the  interests  of  a  parasitic  minority. 

The  injustice,  the  cruelty  and  absurdity  of  a 


THE    ABOLITIOX    OF    POVERTY.  169 

state  of  society,  whea^e  the  actual  creators  of 
commodities  are  turned  into  victims  and  abject 
slaves  of  those  who  do  not  create  anything  use- 
ful ;  where  the  toiling  masses  are  being  crushed 
by  the  means  of  the  very  same  products  of  their 
toil,  are  so  striking  that  they  need  little  elucida- 
tion. 

The  questions  that  suggest  themselves  to  our 
mind  are: 

How  did  such  an  obviously  unjust,  cruel  and 
absurd  state  of  society  develop?  How  and  why 
is  such  a  state  of  society  maintained  and  tolerated 
by  reasoning  and  feeling  human  beings? 

Capitalism,  like  all  institutions  of  human  soci- 
ety, is  of  a  transitory  character.  It  developed, 
grew,  and  is  bound  to  be  succeeded  by  another 
state  of  society  as  soon  as  it  has  outlived  its 
utility. 

Cannibalism  was  succeeded  by  slavery,  slav- 
ery by  serfdom,  serfdom  by  free  individual  pro- 
duction, individual  production  by  semi-socialized 
manufacture,  and  the  last  by  fully  socialized  ma- 
chine production. 

There  was  a  time  when  slavery  was  a  progres- 
sive institution  in  comparison  with  cannibalism. 
Serfdom  was  the  legitimate  heir  of  slavery.  In- 
dividual production  was  succeeded  by  the  more 
economic  manufacturing  stage. 

The  modern  machine  production,  as  an  eco- 
nomic stage,  is  immensely  superior  to  all  prev- 
ious stages  of  production.  The  private  owner- 
ship of  the  means  of  production  by  non-pro- 
ducers, however,  turns  machine  production  into 
the  most  perfect  system  of  exploitation.  The 
ownership  of  the  means  of  production  enables 
the  non-producers  to  appropriate  the  lion's  share 


170  AMKKICAX    PAUri:RISM. 

of  the  products  of  the  toil  of  the  working  classes 
in  the  shape  of  rent,  profit,  and  interest. 

In  order  to  get  means  of  subsistence  for  him- 
self and  his  family,  the  modern  proletarian  has 
to  dispose  in  the  world's  market  of  the  only 
property  left  to  him — his  labor  power.  He  is 
compelled,  under  the  penalty  of  death  from  star- 
vation, to  sell  his  labor  power  at  the  market  price 
to  the  owner  of  the  means  of  production — to  the 
capitalist.  The  divorce  between  the  producer  and 
the  means  of  production  turned  human  labor 
power  into  a  mere  marketable  commodity,  sub- 
jected to  all  the  vicissitudes  of  supply  and  de- 
mand. 

As  we  cannot  separate  a  living  human  being 
from  his  labor  power,  the  laborer  himself  is 
actually  turned  into  a  mere  marketable  commod- 
ity, into  a  wage  slave.  It  is  true  the  modern 
wage  slave,  not  like  the  serf  or  chattel  slave, 
may  choose,  if  he  can,  his  master,  but  a  master 
he  must  have,  or  starve.  With  the  increasing 
concentration  and  consolidation  of  capital  in  gi- 
gantic combines,  trusts,  and  monopolies,  even 
this  doubtful  privilege  of  choosing  the  master  is 
becoming  illusory.  The  employer  of  labor,  the 
capitalist,  is  not  in  business  for  his  health.  He 
buys  labor  power  at  the  lowest  possible  price 
and  sells  the  products  of  this  labor  power  at  the 
highest  price  possible.  It  is  in  the  interest  of  the 
capitalist  to  apply  labor  power  to  production  with 
the  highest  intensity  possible. 

The  wage-worker  must  produce  a  higher  value 
than  that  embodied  in  the  wage  he  receives.  He 
must  produce  suiplits  z'ahic  for  the  benefit  of  his 
employer — the  capitalist.  The  latter  pockets  the 
surplus  value.     Part  of  it  he  consumes  and  part 


THE   ADOLITION    OF    PONERTY.  I/I 

of  it  he  reinvests  in  his  business  in  order  to  buy- 
more  labor  power  and  make  more  profit. 

Capitalistic  property  is  consequently  based  not 
on  the  labor  of  its  actual  owner,  but  on  the  labor 
of  those  who  do  not  own  any  property  except 
their  labor  power,  on  the  labor  of  exploited  prole- 
tarians. 

Capitalism  disintegrates  the  family  of  the 
proletrian,  drives  his  daughter  on  the  thorny 
path  of  sexual  slavery,  sends  his  child  into  the 
sweatshop  and  mill,  breeds  crime,  and  creates 
poverty  and  pauperism. 

In  order  to  comprehend  the  reason  why  and 
how  the  capitalistic  state  of  society  is  maintained 
and  tolerated  by  a  race  of  feeling  and  reason- 
ing beings,  we  have  to  examine  the  methods  used 
by  the  ruling  parasitic  classes  who  keep  the  toil- 
ing masses  in  due  obeisance  and  subjection. 

The  cardinal  difference  between  man  and  ani- 
mal, as  far  as  the  struggle  for  existence  is  con- 
cerned, consists  in  their  respective  mode  of  adap- 
tation to  the  environment.  Animals  limit  them- 
selves, as  a  rule,  to  a  passive  adaptation  to  the 
environment.  Men  adapt  to  a  great  extent  the 
environment  to  themselves — in  fact,  create  an  ar- 
tificial environment  to  suit  their  purposes.  Cul- 
ture and  civilization  are  mainly  the  results  of  this 
ability  of  men  to  be,  to  a  considerable  extent,  the 
masters  of  their  own  destinies.  A  stage  of  cul- 
ture favorable  to  the  ever-increasing  perfection 
of  the  artificial  material  environment  is  called 
progressive  and  vice  versa. 

The  term  artificial  is,  of  course,  not  meant  here 
as  an  entire  opposite  to  the  term  "natural,"  but 
rather  in  the  sense  of  conscious,  purposely  modi- 
fied. 

Men,    for    instance,    invented    cloth,    houses, 


1/2  AMKRICAX    PAUPERISM. 

stoves,  etc.,  in  order  to  protect  themselves  from 
the  inclemencies  of  the  weather.  Cloth,  houses, 
stoves,  etc.,  are  artificial,  purposely  modified, 
natural  products ;  they  are  the  creation  of  human 
ingenuity  and  form  a  part  of  the  material  en- 
vironment that  makes  up  our  culture  and  civiliza- 
tion. 

What  are  the  psychological  foundations  of  the 
creative  genius  of  mankind  ? 

The  foundations  of  the  creative  genius  of 
mankind  are  properties  of  the  human  mind.  The 
human  mind  is  always  active  in  observing  nature 
and  its  phenomena,  in  making  general  conclu- 
sions from  these  observations  for  guidance  in  the 
future  activities.  Since  men  learned  to  distin- 
guish between  their  own  self  (ego)  and  the  mate- 
rial environment,  the  not  own  self  (non  ego), 
they  noticed  that  all  natural  processes  take  place 
in  a  certain  way  and  manner.  Where  and  when 
men  succeeded  in  ascertaining  exactly  these  con- 
ditions in  any  special  case  they  can  invariably 
predict  or  even  reproduce  the  natural  process  arti- 
ficially. In  other  words,  observation  leads  to 
knowledge  and  knowledge  to  conscious  creative 
work.  By  an  exceedingly  slow  and  painful  proc- 
ess of  mental  growth  men  gradually  arrive  at 
the  conclusion  that  mere  passive  observation  of 
nature  does  not  always  lead  to  exact  knowledge. 
Artificial  experiments,  experiments  with  a  set 
purpose  in  view,  were  adopted.  Nature  answers 
direct  questions,  not  revealing  the  whole  truth, 
so  men  started  to  subject  it  to  cross  examinations. 

The  results  of  the  observations,  experiments 
and  conclusions  suggested  to  the  human  mind 
were  gradually  co-oxdinated  into  a  system  called 
"Science." 


Tin:  ABor.iTioN  OF  poxr.RTV.  173 

As  a  civilizing  factor  science  has  no  rival. 
Civilization  is  unthinkable  without  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  immutable  laws  of  nature,  however 
crude  and  imperfect  that  knowledge  may  be. 
Science — perfected  knowledge — is  the  most  es- 
sential and  solid  foundation  of  culture  and  civil- 
ization. Knowdedge  is  power  to  subject  the 
material  environment  to  human  needs.  Science 
is  the  strongest  light  at  the  disposal  of  men  in 
their  struggle  for  existence  in  the  perplexing 
labyrinth  of  the  universe.  From  the  sociological 
point  of  view,  science  appears  as  the  result  of 
mind  activity  of  countless  generations  of  human 
beings,  as  the  most  precious  inheritance  of  hu- 
mankind from  the  past,  as  the  concentrated  and 
digested  achievement  of  the  collective  mind  of 
the  entire  human  race  during  its  existence  on  the 
globe.  Being  the  result  of  the  achievement  of 
the  collective  human  mind,  science  is  the  rightful 
heritage  of  the  entire  human  race.  Each  human 
being  is  entitled  to  his  full  share  in  the  benefits 
of  science.  This  appears  to  be  an  indisputable 
postulate  of  modern  ethics. 

It  is,  however,  a  historical  fact  that  the  mar- 
velous power  and  light  of  knowledge  was,  as  it  is 
at  present,  monopolized  by  the  ruling  classes_  and 
misused  by  them  to  the  detriment  of  the  toiling 
masses  of  the  people.  In  ancient  times  sacerdotal 
castes,  priestcraft,  monopolized  knowledge  and 
exploited  it  in  the  interest  of  its  own  and  of  the 
military  caste.  In  ancient  Greece  and  Rome 
learned  slaves  were  employed  as  tutors  for  the 
slaveholding  free  citizens.  In  the  middle  ages 
science  was  confined  to  the  obscure  seclusion  of 
monasteries.  In  our  modern  time  science  is 
made   subservient  to  the  ruling  classes  by  the 


174  AMEKRAX    rAUPKRISM. 

economic  structure  of  society  itself.  The  broad 
masses  of  the  people  are  benefited  by  the  appli- 
cation of  science  to  useful  arts  indirectly  and  in- 
cidentally only,  while  the  ruling;  plutocracy  con- 
sciously and  unscrupulously  monopolizes  the  di- 
rect use  and  enjoyment  of  the  power  and  light  of 
science.  The  masses  are  kept,  as  far  as  is  prac- 
ticable, in  the  dense  darkness  and  weakness  of  ig- 
norance. 

Our  present  industrial  system  in  this  manner, 
by  condemning  the  toiling  masses  to  ignorance, 
undermines  the  very  foundation  of  culture  and 
civilization.  By  depriving  the  children  of  the 
proletariat  of  their  inalienable  rights  to  knowl- 
edge and  enlightenment,  Capitalism  slowly,  but 
surely,  tends  toward  barbarity. 

Those  children  of  the  toiling  masses,  who,  in 
spite  of  all  impediments  and  obstacles  in  their 
way,  by  dint  of  perseverance  and  great  self  abne- 
gation attain  higher  education,  are  compelled  by 
the  existing  economic  condition  to  submit  their 
professionally  trained  minds  and  scientific  erudi- 
tion to  the  same  direct  exploitation  by  the  para- 
sitic classes  of  the  predatory  rich,  as  their  hum- 
ble brothers  in  the  so-called  lower  walks  of  life. 
The  intellectual  proletariat  is  comparatively  a 
great  deal  more  exploited  than  the  broader 
masses  of  laborers.  The  clerk,  the  teacher,  the 
physician,  the  engineer,  the  chemist,  and  other 
professional  men  get  on  an  average  a  great  deal 
less  in  proportion  for  their  high  grade  services, 
which  demand  years  of  careful  study,  special 
training  and  exclusive  abilities,  than  the  com- 
mon laborer  for  his  merely  physical  exertions. 

According  to  the  investigation  of  the  United 
States  Commissioner  of  Labor,  the  average  earn- 


THE    ADOLITKJN    OF    POVERTY.  1 75 

ings  of  the  professional  men  and  women  living  in 
the  slums  of  the  four  typical  large  cities  of  Amer- 
ica— New  York,  Chicago,  Philadelphia,  and 
Baltimore — is  as  follows  : 

WEEKLY    WAGES   OR   EARNINGS   OF   PROFESSIONALS. 

In  Baltimore — 

Males    $1550 

Females    . 9.02 

In  Chicago — 

Males    $1530 

Females    •  • 1409 

In  New  York — 

Males    $1377 

Females    11.80 

In   Philadelphia — 

Males $1370 

Females    1329 

And  the  social  status  of  the  intellectual  prole- 
tarian is  correspondingly  low.  An  illiterate 
millionaire  occupies  an  immensely  higher  social 
position  than  the  most  eminent  scientist  who 
happens  to  be  poor.  In  our  parasitic  state  of  so- 
ciety nothing  is  cheaper  than  human  brains. 
Education  does  not  pay.  The  most  "successful" 
members  of  our  present  society  are  ignoramuses 
who  claim  that  "education  is  a  disqualification  for 
business."  This  claim  is  substantiated  by  facts 
and  observations.  Indeed  "business"  is  nowa- 
days conducted  on  principles  repulsive  to  any 
intelligent  mind,  to  any  man  with  more  or  less 
refined  feelings.  And  yet,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that 
the  intellectual  proletariat  is  practically  suffering 
a  great  deal  more  from  the  capitalistic  system 
than  the  laboring  class  in  general,  there  is  a  great 
deal  less  class  consciousness  to  be  met  with 
among  the   educated   workers   than   among   the 


1^6  A.Mia^KAX    I'AUPERISM. 

uneducated  laborers.  The  consciousness  of  the 
sohdarity  of  interests  is  rapidly  growing  among 
the  working  masses,  as  is  clearly  demon- 
strated by  the  spread  and  development  of 
trade-unionism.  At  the  same  time  the  intellectual 
proletarians  stubbornly  persist  in  remaining  on 
the  strictly  individualistic  or  anarchistic  plan  of 
action,  in  "the  United  States  at  least,  if  not  over 
the  world.  The  intellectual  proletarians  do  not 
seem  to  be  conscious  of  the  fact  that  they  form 
the  upper  strata  of  the  exploited  toiling  masses. 
The  distinct  "esprit  de  corps,"  manifesting  itself 
in  different  trades  pursued  by  workingmen,  is  en- 
tirely lacking  among  the  members  of  various  so- 
called  liberal  professions.  Those  few  professional 
men,  engineers,  chemists,  or  other  professionals 
who  succeed  in  getting  into  a  position  of  employ- 
ing men  of  their  own  specialty,  instead  of  at- 
tempting to  keep  up  the  dignity  and  social 
status  of  their  own  calHng,  as  a  rule,  do  all  in 
their  power  to  underpay  and  overwork  their 
assistants  after  the  most  approved  style  of  the 
parasitic  system  under  which  we  live.  In  this 
way  we  meet  professional  men  who  earn  as  much 
as  street  and  floor  sweepers  in  factories  and 
shops.  The  intellectual  proletarian  is  more  in- 
clined, as  a  rule,  to  serve  as  a  tool  of  the  ex- 
ploiting capitalistic  class,  than  the  ordinary 
worker.  The  reason  for  this  monstrous  anomaly 
is  apparent.  The  capitalistic,  as  well  as  any  other 
social-economic  system,  has  the  inherent  ten- 
dency to  perpetuate  itself.  This  self-perpetua- 
tion tendency  is  manifest  in  the  spirit  of  the  edu- 
cation given  to  the  masses  of  the  school  children 
and  to  the  overgrown  children  called  adults 
through    the    medium    of   books,    the    periodical 


THE   A150LIT10X    OF    rO\EK  IV.  1 77 

press,  the  pulpit,  the  stage,  the  bar,  and  pubHc 
arena  in  general.  The  unsophisticated  laboring 
class  is  fortunate  enough  to  imbibe  less  of  the 
subtle  poison  of  anarchistic  philosophy  and  para- 
sitic morals  spread  broadcast  with  lavish  hands 
by  the  ruling  parasitic  class.  Hence  the  more 
pronounced  opposition  to  exploitation  on  the  part 
of  the  working  class  proper. 

The  educated  proletarian,  however,  was  and  is 
constantly  saturated  with  a  philosophy  of  life 
and  system  of  conduct  favorable  to  the  interest 
of  the  exploiting  classes. 

The  unsophisticated  laborer  is  guided  in  his 
social  economic  relations  by  his  common  sense. 
The  intellectual  proletarian  has  his  common  sense 
obscured  by  all  kinds  of  spiritual  rubbish  which 
he  considers  beyond  and  above  criticism. 

The  system  of  education  which  he  receives  is 
calculated  to  train  his  mind  and  enrich  his 
knowledge  in  a  certain  special  direction,  so  as  to 
prepare  him  to  be  a  useful  small  cogwheel  in  the 
gigantic  mechanicism  of  modern  production. 
On  two  of  the  most  vital  points  of  human  inter- 
est— religion  (in  the  broadest  term  of  the  word) 
and  social  economic  relations  of  man  to  man — 
the  intellectual  proletarian  is  not  only  left  igno- 
rant as  a  new-born  babe,  but  he  is  taught  from 
childhood  to  stunt  or  kill  his  critical  faculties  in 
the  direction  of  revising  the  traditional  views  on 
the  two  points  mentioned  and  receive  these  views 
implicitly.  This  accounts  for  the  fact  that  we 
meet  excellently  informed  and  logically  reason- 
ing specialists  in  all  lines  of  activity,  who  profess 
the  most  antediluvian  views  on  human  social- 
economic  relations.  This  accounts  for  the  fact 
that  there  is  such  a  frightful  incongruity  between 


178  AMERICAN    PAUPERISM. 

our  material  and  spiritual  environment.  From 
the  cradle  to  the  grave  this  incongruity  perse- 
cutes us  as  a  nightmare  and  makes  us  thoroughly 
miserable.  Conventional  lies,  false  statements 
of  facts,  wrong  standards  of  life,  sordid  ideas  and 
ideals  and  monstrous  unrealities  make  up  the 
bulk  of  the  education  we  receive  at  school, 
through  the  medium  of  books,  periodicals,  the 
pulpit,  the  stage,  the  bar,  the  public  arena. 
Children  are  taught  deliberately  the  opposite  of 
truth  as  it  is  known  to  adults.  And  then,  when 
they  reach  maturity,  they  have  to  go  through  the 
agony  of  mind  occasioned  by  this  disenchantment, 
by  the  stern  realities  of  life.  Many  of  them  are 
demoralized  by  the  unexpected  temptations  of  life 
and  only  very  few  have  grit  enough  to  learn  to 
forget  and  to  start  to  think  for  themselves. 

j\Iodern  production  is  based  on  the  strict  ap- 
plication of  the  results  of  scientific  research  to  the 
tasks  of  practical  life.  The  means  of  production 
are  controlled  exclusively  by  the  capitalistic  class. 
Consequently  the  capitalistic  class  is  interested, 
more  than  any  other  class  in  history,  in  the  ad- 
vancement of  science.  Hence  the  generosity  with 
which  capitalists  endow  institutions  of  learning. 
At  the  same  time  the  capitalist  class  is  deeply 
conscious  that  only  popular  ignorance  keeps  it  in 
power.  Therefore  there  exists  the  tendency  to 
guard  the  searchlight  of  knowledge  from  the 
toiling  masses.  Hence  the  tendency  to  make 
science  exclusive  and  to  foster  snobbishness 
among  the  students  of  the  higher  institutions  of 
learning. 

Andrew  Carnegie,  in  a  moment  of  frankness, 
made  the  following  statement,  or  rather  confes- 


THE   ABOLITION    OF    I'ONKUTV.  1/9 

sion,  in  his  address  at  the  opening-  of  the  Institute 
of  Teehnology  at  Iloboken  : 

"I  had  no  inventive  mind — simply  a  mind  to 
use  the  inventions  of  others.  I  think  a  fitting 
epitaph  for  me  would  be,  'Here  lies  a  man  who 
knew  how  to  get  around  him  men  cleverer  than 
himself.'  " 

A  fitting  epitaph  for  the  class  of  social  para- 
sites to  which  A.  Carnegie  belongs  would  be, 
"Here  lies  a  class  that  knew  how  to  appropriate 
the  lion's  share  of  the  results  of  other  people's 
toil  and  genius  without  giving  them  an  equivalent 
for  it." 

The  mammoth  industries  of  capitalism  have 
their  own  experimental  laboratories  where  the 
methods  of  production  are  improved  and  ration- 
alized. 

The  blighting  influence  of  the  commercial 
spirit  of  our  age  permeates  to  the  very  holy  of 
hoHes  of  the  temples  of  science,  penetrates  into 
colleges,  universities  and  academies.  Rich  pro- 
fessors hire  poor  but  talented  young  scientists 
and  appropriate  without  scrupules  their  ideas  and 
discoveries.  Professional  inventors  hire  sci- 
entifically trained  proletarians  and  appropriate 
the  results  of  their  labor  in  the  same  manner  as 
capitalists  exploit  their  wage  slaves.  An  all 
around  stealing  of  ideas  is  considered  as  a  mat- 
ter of  course  in  the  demoralized  "scientific 
world."  The  calling  of  a  scientist  is  degraded  in 
comparison  with  a  common  trade.  Accordingly 
the  spirit  of  gross  commercialism  and  low-bred 
snobbishness  rules  in  our  higher  institutions  of 
learning.  The  very  system  of  private  endowment 
of  institutions  of  learning  by  social  parasites  like 
Rockefeller  and  Carnegie  is  vicious  and  demoral- 


l8o  AMERICAN    rAUPKRlSM. 

izing  in  the  extreme  degree.  It  robs  science  of 
its  independence  and  breeds  toadyism  and 
sycophancy.  Tt  turns  over  the  source  of  spiritual 
cnhghtenmcnt  to  the  polhtting  influences  of 
greedy  phitocracy. 

Under  our  present  system  many  a  genius  plods 
along  in  the  darkness  of  ignorance  behind  a  plow 
or  as  a  common  city  laborer,  while  many  a  dunce 
who  was  fortunate  in  the  choice  of  his  parents 
is  wasting  his  physical  strength  in  sports  and 
riotous  living  as  a  nominal  student  of  a  uni- 
versity. 

Dr.  Felix  Adler,  the  founder  of  the  Ethical 
Culture  movement,  in  his  address  on  the  occasion 
of  laying  the  cornerstone  of  the  new  building  of 
his  society,  said:  "In  the  great  cities  our  public 
schools  are  no  longer  in  the  full  sense  "common 
schools" — in  the  sense  that  they  are  common  to 
all  classes.  In  the  poorer  districts  of  great 
cities  the  public  school  is  often  very  largely  a 
class  school,  a  poor  school ;  elsewhere  it  is  pa- 
tronized by  a  part  of  the  middle  class  and  by  the 
poor,  but  in  increasing  numbers  the  wealthy  are 
no  longer  educating  their  children  in  the  com- 
mon schools,  but  in  class  schools,  where  they 
meet  only  members  of  "their  own  class."  Thus 
the  gulf  between  the  social  classes — the  poor  and 
the  rich — which  is  wide  enough  at  present,  is 
getting  wider  and  wider  and  the  very  founda- 
tion of  our  political  democracy  is  being  con- 
stantly undermined." 

We  know  now  what  Capitalism,  as  a  stage  of 
civilization,  is  and  how  it  manages  to  rule  the 
unthinking  nuiltitudcs  in  the  interests  of  a  class 
of    nonproducers.      We    know    that    Capitalism 


nil-:    ABOLITION    OF    rONKKTY.  l8l 

fosters  pauperism  and  poverty  of  the  broad 
masses  of  the  people. 

Let  us  now  see  and  comprehend  the  forces  that 
counteract  capitaHsm  and  work  for  an  advanced 
civiHzation,  for  a  nobler  culture,  for  a  brighter 
future  for  humanity.  These  forces  may  be  sum- 
marized as  the  physical  nwuicnt  in  social  evolu- 
tion. 

"For  the  poor  ye  have  with  you  always,"  is  the 
somewhat  fatalistic  statement  of  the  Old  and 
New  Testaments.  The  new  gospel  attempted 
even  to  make  a  virtue  out  of  the  sad  necessity  of 
poverty  of  the  masses  in  a  parasitical  state  of 
society. 

In  the  time  of  the  Caesars  the  Roman  mob 
raised  the  slogan,  "Panem  ct  circenses,"  i.  e., 
"free  bread  and  entertainment." 

Hood's  workingman  says : 

"No  alms  I  ask,  give  me  my  task" 

Here  are  the  arm,  the  leg, 
The  strength,  the  sinews  of  a  man 

To  zvork  and  not  to  beg." 

The  modern  proletarian  does  not  see  fatalist- 
ically the  necessity  of  poverty  under  all  social- 
economic  conditions.  He  does  not  implicitly  be- 
lieve in  the  redeeming  power  of  indigence.  He 
considers  it  below  his  human  dignity  to  clamor 
for  public  charity.  He  even  fails  to  get  enthusi- 
astic at  the  idea  of  getting  a  chance  to  sell  his 
labor  power  at  the  market  price  to  some  profit 
monger  styled  employer. 

What  the  modern  proletarian  demands  is 
neither  more  nor  less  than  /";///  social-economic 
justice,  industrial  democracy,  the  entire  product 
of  his  toil. 


l82  AMIilRICAN    PAUPF.RISM. 

Such  was  ihc  trend  of  the  evolution  of  the 
ethical  conceptions  among  "the  submerged 
tenth,"  This  evolution  was  in  strict  accordance 
w^ith  the  social-economic  development. 

In  a  primitive  state  of  human  consociation  the 
means  of  production  of  the  necessities  of  life  are 
rather  crude,  the  skill  of  the  individual  worker 
rather  undeveloped.  The  struggle  for  existence 
must  be  severe.  In  such  a  state  inadequate  pro- 
duction of  commodities,  wealth  underproduction, 
suggests  to  the  physically  strong,  to  the  cun- 
ning and  unscrupulous  the  expropriation  of  the 
physically  weak  and  simple-minded  by  brute 
force  or  crafty  stratagem.  "To  the  victor  be- 
long the  spoils"  and  "woe  to  the  conquered!" 
were  the  fundamental  moral  precepts  of  the  pe- 
riod of  almost  purely  animal  struggle  for  exist- 
ence when  ]\Iight  was  considered  as  identical 
with  Right.  This  was  the  age  wdien  poverty 
appeared  to  be  a  permanent  social  institution  and 
parasitism  a  normal  mode  of  existence  for  the 
so-called  higher  classes  or  castes. 

Poverty  and  social  parasitism  were  and  always 
are  linked  inseparably  together  as  cause  and  ef- 
fect, they  are  the  opposite  sides  of  the  same 
medal  of  barbarity.  Where  there  is  a  victorious 
social  parasite  there  must  be  his  victim — one  of 
the  poor.  Social  parasitism  is  considered  as  a 
mark  of  high  distinction,  while  poverty  is  being 
looked  down  upon  as  a  sign  of  despised  weak- 
ness and  meanness. 

The  abnormal  mode  of  living  indulged  in  by 
the  parasitic  classes,  their  luxury,  ostentation, 
idleness,  arrogance  and  general  viciousness — all 
symptoms  of  degeneration — must  of  necessity 
arouse   the   indignation   and    aversion    of   pure- 


THE    ABOLITION    OF    PONLRTV.  1 83 

minded  but  uncritical  friends  of  tlie  human  race 
and  lead  them  to  the  emotional  but  irrational 
idealization  of  poverty. 

The  instance  of  the  Roman  mob  crying  for 
bread  and  entertainment  at  public  expense 
clearly  demonstrates  that  poverty  leads  to  degra- 
dation.   Extremes  meet  here  as  elsewhere. 

With  the  increasing  development  of  the  skill 
of  the  individual  worker  labor  not  only  lost  the 
stigma  attached  to  it  in  the  days  of  slavery,  but 
gained  in  dignity.  Hence  the  contempt  with 
which  Hood's  laborer  rejects  charity  and  asks, 
"Give  me  my  task."  He  prefers  vv^ork  with  his 
own  tools  and  hands  to  begging,  in  the  proud 
consciousness  of  his  manly  labor-power  and 
physical  strength.  The  growing  perfection  of 
the  tools  of  production  and  their  monopolization 
by  a  class  of  non-producing  profit-mongers  called 
Capitalists  transferred  the  center  of  gravity  from 
the  skilled  workingman  to  the  complex  ma- 
chinery. The  tool  of  production  gained  ascend- 
ency over  its  maker  and  user.  The  dead  mechan- 
ism subjugated  its  living,  thinking  and  feeling 
creator  and  turned  him  into  its  insignificant  ap- 
pendage. The  arm,  the  leg,  the  strength,  the 
sinew^s  of  a  man  were  replaced  by  metallic  giants 
without  blood,  muscles,  nerves  or  heart.  Indi- 
vidual production  was  almost  entirely  super- 
seded by  socialized  production.  However  the 
means  of  production  not  only  were  not  socialized, 
but  were  monopolized  by  non-producers.  The 
existence  of  private  property  in  the  means  of 
production,  under  a  system  of  socialized  produc- 
tion is  absurd.  Indeed  there  must  be  a  mutual 
harmony  between  the  system  of  production  and 
the  form  of  ownership  of  the  means  of  produc- 


184  AMERICAX    PAUPERISM. 

tion.  All  incongruity  between  the  system  of 
production  and  the  mode  of  ownership  of  the 
means  of  production  must  necessarily  lead  to 
abnormal  social-economic  conditions.  Abnormal 
social-economic  conditions  in  their  turn  breed 
discontent  among  those  who  are  compelled  to 
carry  the  heavy  burden  of  production  an-d  dis- 
tribution of  national  wealth  without  getting 
their  share  of  the  wealth  they  produce  and  dis- 
tribute. 

The  dissatisfaction  of  the  toiling  masses  with 
their  fate  resulted  in  a  critical  revision  of  the 
ethical  conception  of  the  institution  of  property  in 
general  and  the  so-called  z'csted  rights  of  the 
privileged  classes  in  particular. 

This  revision  was  accomplished  on  a  thor- 
oughly scientific  and  rational  basis  and  lead  to 
the  following  conclusions : 

The  commodities  necessary  to  the  civilized 
world  represent  natural  products  modified  by 
human  work.  Work  means  energy  applied  to 
overcoming  a  resistance.  For  instance,  a  laborer 
who  lifts  a  load  overcomes  the  resistance  caused 
by  the  attraction  of  the  load  to  the  earth.  In 
order  to  accomplish  this  work  the  laborer  has  to 
spend  the  energy  of  his  body,  he  has  to  waste  a 
certain  part  of  his  muscles,  sinews,  tissues,  nerves 
and  blood.  Every  manufactured  commodity  rep- 
resents therefore  the  transformed  elements  of  the 
body  or  bodies  of  those  who  participated  in  its 
production.  Work  is  consequently  the  incarna- 
tion of  human  energy  in  modified  natural  prod- 
ucts. All  men  are  children  of  Nature  and  are  all 
equally  entitled  to  its  products  as  far  as  thev  dn 
not  embody  human  labor.  Human  labor,  the 
energy  applied  by  the  laborer  to  the  process  of 


Tllli    ABOLITION    OF    I'OXEKTV.  185 

niodificatiou  of  natural  products,  appears  to  bo 
the  actual  ethical  foundation  of  property.  If  one 
man  alone  toiled  on  the  modification  of  a  product 
of  nature,  or  raw  material,  in  order  to  produce  a 
commodity,  this  commodity  would  be  his  in- 
alienable individual  property.  If  many  partici- 
pated in  the  process  of  producing  a  certain  com- 
modity— the  last  would  represent  their  inalien- 
able common  property.  Any  other  claim  on  prop- 
erty except  work,  labor  or  personal  exertion  is 
unethical  and  parasitical. 

Our  present  social-economic  system  viewed  in 
the  light  of  modern  ethics  appears  to  be  parasit- 
ical by  its  very  nature. 

In  order  to  comprehend  the  nature  of  our  cap- 
italistic system  we  have  to  view  it  from  two 
aspects,  namely,  as  a  system  of  production  and  as 
a  stage  of  civilization. 

As  a  system  of  production  the  capitalistic  sys- 
tem represents  the  results  of  applied  sciences,  it 
is  practically  machine  production  on  a  more  or 
less  pronounced  co-operative  foundation,  social- 
ized production. 

The  monopolization  of  means  of  production  by 
a  non-producing  class  of  profit  mongers  called 
Capitalists  gives  the  second  aspect  of  the  cap- 
italistic system  and  imparts  its  peculiarity  to  our 
stage  of  civilization. 

Socialized  production,  with  means  of  produc- 
tion owned  by  non-producers,  is  the  brief  defini- 
tion of  Capitalism. 

The  mode  of  production  is  thoroughly  modern, 
while  the  form  of  ownership  of  the  means  of 
production  appears  as  a  survival  of  the  previous 
stage  of  production,  as  an  anachronism. 

We  have  now  to  explain  how  this  incongruity 


l86  AMERICAN-    PAUPERISM. 

between  the  advanced  system  of  production  and 
the  belated  mode  of  ownership  of  the  means  of 
production  came  about. 

Prockiction  of  commodities  is  a  process  de- 
pendent on  the  skill  and  knowledge  of  the  pro- 
ducers. One  happy  idea,  one  great  invention, 
may  cause  a  rapid  advance  in  the  mode  of  pro- 
duction. A  series  of  inventions  and  technical 
discoveries  may  revolutionize  the  methods  of 
production  in  a  comparatively  brief  period  of 
time  and  change  to  a  considerable  extent  the  ma- 
terial environment. 

The  case  is.  however,  entirely  different  with  the 
psychical  environment,  the  intellectual,  emotional 
and  ethical  readjustment  of  social-economic  in- 
terrelations between  the  various  elements  of  so- 
ciety. The  spiritual  life  of  man  being  infinitely 
more  subtle,  more  complex  than  his  merely  mate- 
rial activities,  the  psychical  environment  must 
naturally  lag  behind  the  economic  development. 

It  is  generally  conceded  that  men  are  the 
product  of  their  material  environment.  Many 
people,  however,  do  not  realize  that  men,  as  in- 
telligent beings,  in  their  turn  exert  a  certain  in- 
fluence on  their  material  environment  and  are 
therefore  to  a  marked  degree  active  factors  in  the 
shaping  of  their  own  destinies. 

The  tremendous  complexity  of  forces  which 
we  call  social  laws  have  come  down  to  us  with 
the  wisdom  and  ethical  ideas  of  the  past  genera- 
tions. Social  forces  are  psychical  forces,  forming 
the  superstructure  of  social-economic  conditions. 

Owing  to  mental  inertia  the  psychical  environ- 
ment of  the  uncritical  majority  of  one  generation 
represents   a   survival   of  the   superstructure  of 


THE    AliOLlTlUX    OF    POX  KRTY.  iS/ 

material  conditions  of  past  generations.  The 
dead  rule  the  living. 

Says  Karl  Marx  in  the  "Communist  Mani- 
festo": "Does  it  require  deep  intuition  to  com- 
prehend that  man's  ideas,  views  and  conceptions, 
in  one  word,  man's  consciousness,  changes  with 
every  change  in  the  conditions  of  his  material 
existence,  in  his  social  relations  and  in  his  social 
life?  What  else  does  the  history  of  ideas  prove 
than  that  intellectual  production  changes  its 
character  in  proportion  as  material  production  is 
changed?  The  ruling  ideas  of  each  age  have 
ever  been  the  ideas  of  the  ruling  class.  When 
people  speak  of  ideas  that  revolutionize  society 
they  do  but  express  the  fact  that  within  the  old 
society  the  elements  of  a  new  one  have  been  cre- 
ated and  that  the  dissolution  of  the  old  ideas 'keep 
even  pace  with  the  dissolutions  of  the  old  condi- 
tions of  existence." 

Marx  obviously  speaks  about  the  unthinking 
masses  when  he  states  that  "the  ruling  ideas  of 
each  age  have  ever  been  the  ideas  of  the  ruling 
class."  He,  however,  has  in  view  the  reasoning 
minority  when  he  mentions  "the  elements  of  a 
new  (society)  created  within  the  old  society." 

Marx  may  be  correctly  classed  with  the  truly 
scientific  modern  school  of  psychological  sociolo- 
gists. 

The  so-called  Spencerian  school  of  sociologists 
may  be  termed  "vulgar  sociologists"  in  the  same 
sense  as  Marx  called  the  middle  class  economists 
(as  for  instance  Roscher)  "vulgar  economists." 
The  most  brilliant  American  exponent  of  the 
psychological  school  of  sociology,  Lester  F. 
Ward,  is  in  all  respects  superior  to  Herbert 
Spencer  as  an  unbiased  scientist. 


l88  AMEKICAX    I'AUPEKISM. 

According  to  Herbert  Spencer  sociology  is 
solely  a  descriptive  science  dealing  with  the 
status  of  society.  According  to  Lester  F.  Ward 
sociology  on  the  contrary  is  a  purposive  (teleo- 
logical)  science  about  social  forces. 

"Dynamic  Sociology  aims  at  the  organization 
of  happiness.  Society,  which  is  the  highest  prod- 
uct of  evolution,  naturally  depends  upon  Mind, 
which  is  the  highest  property  of  matter.  The 
dynamic  department  of  psychology  becomes  also 
that  of  sociology  the  moment  we  rise  from  the  in- 
dividual to  society.  The  social  forces  are  the 
psychic  forces  as  they  operate  in  the  collective 
state  of  men.  The  organisation  of  feeling  is  the 
central  task  of  sociology." 

These  few  quotations  will  suffice  to  show  the 
trend  of  the  psychological  school  of  sociology  and 
its  conception  of  social  evolution  as  a  conscious 
dynamic  process,  in  which  the  human  mind  is  the 
directive  force,  a  conception  that  is  in  perfect  har- 
mony with  K.  Marx's  celebrated  materialistic 
conception  of  history. 

The  fundamental  social  force  is  the  in- 
stinct of  self  preservation,  a  corollary  of  the 
law  of  conservation  of  energy,  the  desire 
to  live  as  extensively  and  intensively  as  pos- 
sible. In  order  to  satisfy  this  instinct  man 
has  to  adapt  himself  to  the  material  environ- 
ment or  change  the  environment,  as  far  as 
practicable,  to  suit  his  needs.  The  higher  man 
stands  on  the  evolutionary  ladder,  the  more  his 
conscious  modification  of  the  material  environ- 
ment predominates  over  the  passive  unconscious 
or  semiconscious  adaptation  to  it.  The  civilized 
man,  to  a  certain  extent,  creates  an  artificial  en- 
vironment bv  the  aid  of  his  mind.     The  mind. 


THE   ABOLITION    OF    POVERTY.  l8g 

not  physical  force,  is  the  chief  characteristic  of 
mankind.  Following'  cunningly  the  line  of  least 
resistance  man  advanced  from  mere  brute  exist- 
ence stage  by  stage ;  from  cannibalism  to  slavery, 
from  slavery  to  serfdom,  from  serfdom  to  wage 
dependence,  under  the  system  of  Capitalistic  or 
machine  production.  Each  of  these  stages  of  so- 
cial evolution  had  its  peculiar  material  as  well  as 
psychical  environment.  By  sheer  force  of  inertia 
the  psychical  environment  of  slavery  survived  the 
material  environment  that  justified  the  institution 
of  slavery  as  an  advanced  stage  in  comparison 
with  cannibalism.  Not  alone  did  the  numerically 
insignificant  slaveholders  of  the  Southern  States 
kept  up  slavery  long  after  that  system  outlived 
its  utility,  they  could  not  have  kept  it  up  if  they 
had  not  been  backed  up  by  the  surviving' 
psychical  environment  of  slavery.  The  same  ap- 
plies to  serfdom  and  the  sociological  side  of 
Capitalism,  the  wage  dependence,  which  creates 
social  economic  parasitism  of  the  classes,  and  ma- 
terial and  spiritual  impoverishment  of  the  masses. 

The  mission  of  the  thinking  minority  in  his- 
tory consists  in  the  modification  of  the  psychical 
environment  of  the  broad  unreasoning  masses  of 
the  people  to  correspond  to  the  advanced  material 
environment. 

In  our  stage  of  civilization  this  mission  con- 
sists in  the  propagation  or  broad  and  deep  dis- 
semination of  collectivistic  ideas  and  ideals  and 
the  extermination  of  individualistic  or  anarchistic 
proclivities.  The  watchword  of  the  advance- 
guard  of  a  higher  civilization  is  not  "each  for 
himself  and  the  devil  take  the  hindmost,"  but  the 
brotherly  principle  "each  for  all  and  all  for  each." 
Their  ideal  is  not  competition,  but  emulation  and 


190  AMF.RU"AX    rAUPi:RIS>[. 

co-opcratioii.  Their  economic  ideal  is  co-opera- 
tion and  economic  equality,  and  production  for 
the  satisfaction  of  human  needs,  but  not  for 
profit.  The  co-operative  commonwealth  will 
have  no  place  for  either  millionaires  or  paupers, 
neither  for  exploiters  nor  exploited.  Professor 
Simmel  says,  "The  real  significance  of  the  mate- 
rialistic conception  of  history  is  contained  in  the 
fact  that  it  was  the  first  attempt  to  explain  his- 
tory by  means  of  a  psychological  principle.  _  If 
hunger  did  not  cause  pain,  if  it  were  not,  besides 
having  its  physiological  function,  a  spiritual 
event,  then  it  would  never  set  free  the  events  that 
we  call  history.  The  general  synthesis  that  shall 
unite  all  the  currents  of  existence,  as  known  to 
us,  into  consistent  ideas,  that  shall  convert  all 
external  reality  into  spiritual  values,  and  satisfy 
all  the  needs  of  the  spirit  with  the  results  of 
knowledge — this  great  synthesis  we  still  await." 

Professor  Albion  Small,  of  Chicago,  a  very 
conservative  man,  who  never  misses  an  oppor- 
tunity to  draw  a  sharp  line  of  demarcation  be- 
tween sociology  and  socialism,  says : 

"We  have  to  find  out  what  men  want,  why  they 
want  it,  in  what  proportion  they  want  it  to  other 
things,  that  themselves,  and  others  want,  how 
the  wants  depend  upon  each  other,  how  associa- 
tion is  related  to  those  wants  (the  real  passage 
from  psychology  to  sociology),  and  how  to  ap- 
praise the  same  in  settling  upon  a  theory  of  the 
conduct  of  life.  The  center  of  graznty  of  the 
nezver  sociology  is  the  interest  which  moves  the 
machinery  of  association.  Everything  else  be- 
comes secondary.  The  central  reality  in  asso- 
ciation is  the  evolution  and  correlation  of  inter- 
ests:'   (Science  N.  S.  V.  XV  383,  p.  706.) 


THE    ABOLITION    OF    POX'EKTV.  IQI 

The  demands  of  the  modern  proletariat  ahnhig 
at  the  abolition  of  the  social  economic  parasitism 
of  the  classes  and  of  the  poverty  of  the  masses 
are,  as  we  see,  nothing  else  than  the  legitimate 
product  of  social  evolution,  the  correlation  of  in- 
terests not  of  single  class  only,  but  of  the  entire 
human  race. 

The  modern  proletariat  movement  is  a  logical 
outcome  of  social  evolution  in  general.  Since 
man  succeeded  in  artificial  modification  of  his 
material  environment,  since  he  succeeded  in  sub- 
jecting nature  to  the  dictation  of  his  will  guided 
by  mind,  the  animal  struggle  for  existence  be- 
tween single  human  individuals  gradually  lost 
its  sharp  sting.  The  primeval  man  was  a 
gregarious  being.  The  progressive  development 
of  the  human  mind  led  step  by  step  to  a  relaxa- 
tion of  extreme  individualism  and  a  correspond- 
ing strengthening  of  the  dormant  social  and  racial 
instincts.  The  passing  relations  between  the 
representatives  of  the  opposite  sexes  deepened 
into  lifelong  attachment  and  mutual  affection. 
The  human  family — the  prototype  of  the  human 
race,  the  nucleus  of  the  modern  civilized  society, 
the  fundamental  social  unit,  was  differentiated. 
The  attachment  to  progeny  on  the  part  of  the 
parents  proportionally  increased  and  lead  to  the 
extension  of  the  period  of  infancy,  devoted  to 
the  task  of  preparing  the  coming  generations  for 
the  emergencies  of  social  life  and  strife.  How- 
ever inimical  the  relations  between  single  indi- 
viduals were  at  the-  period  when  the  family 
shaped  itself  as  a  permanent  social  institution, 
the  mutual  relations  between  the  members  of  the 
family  were  more  or  less  friendly  and  intimate. 
The   fierce   animal    struggle    for   existence    was 


192  AMERICAN    PAUrERISM. 

fliininalc'd  from  family  life  and  substituted  by 
mutual  helpfulness.  The  family  formed  a  so- 
cial oasis  of  "peace  and  good  will"  in  the  anarchic 
desert  of  general  hostility,  war  and  strife.  The 
struggle  for  existence  between  single  individuals 
gradually  merged  into  a  struggle  between  the 
fundamental  social  units,  the  families. 

The  powerful  civilizing  agency  of  family  life 
worked  steadily  in  the  direction  of  contracting 
the  field  of  the  animal  struggle  for  existence,  and 
extending  the  domain  of  civilization,  mutual  help- 
fulness and  co-operation.  The  family  grew  into 
a  clan,  the  clan  developed  into  a  tribe  and  so  on 
and  on,  from  the  most  simple  to  the  most  complex 
social  aggregate.  This  process  of  consolidation 
of  the  human  family  is  going  on  in  our  day  and 
expresses  itself  in  the  political  as  well  as  economic 
field,  in  the  growing  consciousness  of  the  soli- 
darity and  even  identity  of  the  interests  of  larger 
and  larger  aggregates  of  men.  The  purest  and 
most  universal  expression  of  this  consciousness 
is  the  spreading  conviction  that  the  interests  of 
the  proletariat  and  the  interests  of  the  entire  hu- 
man race  are  identical. 

The  class  consciousness  of  the  modern  prole- 
tariat, rightly  understood,  is  nothing  else  but 
Race-conscio  usness. 

Race-consciousness  was,  is,  and  will  always  re- 
main the  highest  ideal  of  humanity,  the  ideal  of 
all  those  who  suffered,  labored  and  died  in  the 
battle  for  the  great  cause  of  humanity  from  time 
immemorial  to  our  days. 

The  modern  proletarian  movement  finds  its 
clearest  and  truest  expression  in  Socialism. 

Is  socialism  only  a  noble  dream?  Or  is  it  a 
science  built  on  the  impregnable  rock  of  the  ma- 


Till-:    ABULITIOX    OF    rOVF.RTV.  I93 

terialistic  conception  of  history?  Is  it  a  panacea 
against  all  the  social  evils  of  the  day  ?  Is  it  a 
philosophy  of  life,  a  stage  of  culture  and  civiliza- 
tion, a  class  struggle?  Why  is  the  Socialistic 
movement  subdivided  into  so  many  parts,  factions 
and  sects,  often  combatting  each  other  bitterly  ? 

These  and  similar  questions  involuntarily  sug- 
gest themselves  to  every  intelligent  observer  of 
the  modern  proletarian  movement.  The  key  to 
the  solution  of  the  problems  indicated  above  is 
concealed  in  the  complexity  and  many-sidedness 
of  the  movement. 

Diiiferent  aspects  of  the  social  economic  evolu- 
tion present  themselves  to  different  minds,  ac- 
cording to  their  peculiarities  and  predilections. 
In  order  to  have  a  closer  and  true  conception 
about  socialism  it  is  necessary  to  view  it  from  as 
many  angles  of  vision  as  possible.  Truth  cannot 
be  monopolized,  and  no  particular  school  of  so- 
cialism has  a  right  to  claim  for  itself  infallibility. 
Any  honest  conviction,  any  sincere  opinion  on 
this,  as  on  any  other  subject  of  human  interest, 
has  to  be  met  with  the  spirit  of  broad  tolerance 
and  criticised  in  the  light  of  science  and  reason. 

As  a  philosophy  of  life,  socialism  is  the  modern 
expression  of  Race-consciousness  (in  opposition 
to  Anarchism  or  Individualism).  It  is  based  on 
the  conviction  that  the  interest  of  each  man, 
woman,  and  child  is  served  best  by  the  advance- 
ment of  the  general  welfare  of  humanity.  This 
principle  forms  the  foundation  of  international 
socialism.  It  is  equivalent  to  the  recognition  of 
the  perfect  solidarity  of  interests  of  all  men.  The 
welfare  of  the  proletariat  is  identical  with  the 
welfare  of  the  entire  human  race.  The  final  aim 
of    the    Socialistic    movement    consists    in    the 


T94  AMERICAN    PAUPERISM. 

cmancii)ation  of  Inimanity  from  the  despotic  sway 
of  economic  power  of  one  class  over  the  other. 
The  classical  call,  "Proletarians  of  all  countries, 
unite!"  is  a  call  to  a  united  self  defence  of  the 
overwhelming-  majority  against  the  tyranny  of  a 
ridiculously  small  minority  of  exploiters  of  hu- 
man toil.  As  a  constructive  power  socialism  is  of 
great  importance,  inasmuch  as  it  presents  all  the 
results  of  scientific  research,  of  human  reason, 
and  noble  aspirations  to  the  services  of  social- 
economic  advancement.  In  the  past  and  at  pres- 
ent the  social  economic  evolution  was  mainly,  if 
not  exclusively,  an  organic  and  consequently  un- 
conscious process.  Constructive  socialism  has  in 
view  the  introduction  of  rational  conscious- 
ness into  social  economic  life,  with  the  purpose  of 
the  organization  of  happiness  on  earth.  It  aims 
at  the  emancipation  of  humanity  from  the  fetish- 
ism of  wealth ;  from  the  worship  of  Mammon. 
As  a  factor  in  the  advancement  of  culture  and 
civilization  socialism  excels  all  others.  It  is  in 
perfect  harmony  with  the  modern  methods  of 
production.  The  mode  of  appropriation  has  to  be 
adapted  to  the  mode  of  production.  "Only  from 
that  moment,"  says  F.  Engels,  "will  the  social 
process  set  into  motion  by  them  produce  the  re- 
sults desired  by  them  in  a  larger  and  larger 
measure.  //  is  the  leap  of  hiimanify  from  the 
doinain  of  necessity  into  the  realm  of  Freedom." 

The  modern  phase  of  socialism  expounded  by 
Rodbertus,  ]\Iarx  and  Lassalle  may  be  most  cor- 
rectly designated  by  the  term  Critical  as  opposed 
to  the  preceding  stage  of  emotional  Socialism. 
(Sfc.  Simon,  Fourier,  Cabet  and  others.) 

Emotional  socialism  developed  into  critical  so- 


THE    ABOLITION    OF    POVERTY.  I95 

cialism  and  the  last  will  serve  as  a  foundation  for 
constructive  socialism. 

Constructive  socialism  will  have  to  pursue  a 
policy  of  adaptation  to  existing  conditions  in  the 
very  midst  of  the  present  civilization,  clearing  the 
ground,  utilizing  carefully  the  material  at  hand. 
One  of  these  conditions  is  the  existence  of  classes 
in  present  society,  of  distinct  strata  of  people  pur- 
suing their  class  interests,  or  what  they  consider 
as  their  class  interests,  in  opposition  to  the  inter- 
ests of  the  rest  of  humanity.  This  class  con- 
sciousness is  especially  strongly  developed  among 
the  members  of  the  exploiting  class  and  compara- 
tively weakly  among  the  exploited  masses. 

jMarx,  as  a  sociological  thinker  and  economist, 
exposed  the  absurdities,  incongruities  and  injus- 
tice permeating  the  class  ridden  system  of  parasit- 
ism called  capitalism.  He  invited  the  proleta- 
rians of  all  countries,  of  all  nations,  to  unite 
against  the  class-rule  of  the  capitalists,  for  the 
purpose  of  destroying  class-rule  forever. 

According  to  his  teachings,  classes,  as  creations 
of  certain  irrational  social  economic  conditions, 
will  have  to  disappear  along  wath  the  conditions 
that  called  them  into  life.  The  lasting,  essential 
element  of  Marx's  theory  of  society  consists  in 
the  necessity  of  destruction  of  all  social  economic 
inequalities,  in  the  elimination  of  the  economic 
struggle  for  existence,  from  human  society,  and 
its  replacement  by  co-operation  and  mutual  help- 
fulness. F.  Engels,  in  his  introduction  to  the 
"Communist  Manifesto,"  said:  "The  proletariat 
cannot  attain  its  emancipation  from  the  sway  of 
the  exploiting  and  ruling  class,  the  bourgeoise, 
without  at  the  same  time  and  once  for  all  emanci- 
pating society  at  large  (the  human  race)  from  all 


196  AMERICAN    PAUPKKISM. 

exploitation,    oppression,   class    distinctions   and 
class  struggle." 

A  clearer  statement  of  the  very  essence  of  so- 
cialism, as  the  highest  ideal  of  the  human  race, 
of  Race-consciousness,  can  hardly  be  conceived. 
How  truly  F.  Engels  voiced  the  ideas  of  Marx 
may  be  gathered  from  the  following  quotations 
from  the  Communist  Manifesto : 

"If  the  proletariat,  during  its  contest  with  the 
bourgeoise  (middle  class,  capitalists)  is  com- 
pelled by  force  of  circumstances  to  organize  it- 
self as  a  class,  if,  by  means  of  a  revolution  it 
makes  itself  the  ruling  class,  and  as  such  sweeps 
away  by  force  the  old  conditions  of  production, 
then  it  will,  along  with  these  conditions,  have 
swept  away  the  conditions  for  the  existence  of 
class-antagonism,  and  of  class  generally,  and  will 
thereby  have  abolished  its  own  supremacy  as  a 
class.  In  place  of  the  old  bourgeois  (capitalistic) 
society  with  its  classes  and  class-antagonism,  we 
shall  have  an  association  in  which  the  free  de- 
velopment of  each  is  the  condition  for  the  free 
development  of  all.     *     *     " 

«  *  *  *  ^11  previous  historical  movements 
were  movements  of  minorities,  or  in  the  interest 
of  minorities.  The  proletarian  movement  is  the 
selfconscious,  independent  movement  of  the  im- 
mense majority.  National  differences  and  an- 
tagonism between  peoples  (nations)  are  daily 
more  and  more  vanishing.  The  supremacy  of  the 
proletariat  will  cause  them  to  vanish  still  faster. 
United  action  of  the  leading  civilized  countries 
at  least  is  one  of  the  first  conditions  for  the 
emancipation  of  the  proletariat.  In  proportion 
as  the  exploitation  of  one  individual  by  another 
is  put  an  end  to.  the  exploitation  of  one  nation 


THE   ABOLITION    OF    POVERTY.  I97 

by  another  will  also  be  put  an  end  to.  In  pro- 
portion as  the  antagonism  between  classes  within 
the  nation  vanishes,  the  hostility  of  one  nation 
to  other  nations  will  come  to  an  end." 

The  history  of  humanity  may  be,  to  an  extent 
at  least,  looked  upon  as  the  record  of  struggles 
between  different  classes  for  supremacy  and 
power.  The  feudal  class,  for  instance,  was  con- 
quered by  the  middle  class  (the  bourgeois), 
which  now  rules  the  world  through  the  power  of 
organized  material  wealth.  The  so-called  "Great 
French  Revolution"  is  considered  to  be  the  line 
of  demarcation  between  the  rule  of  the  feudal  and 
the  rule  of  the  middle  class.  The  last  won  its 
battle  with  the  aid  of  the  propertyless  fourth 
class,  the  proletariat.  The  proletariat  played  the 
part  of  the  ram  with  the  aid  of  which  the  fortress 
of  feudalism  was  battered  down  into  dust. 
When  the  fortress  was  demolished  the  ram  was 
left  to  its  own  destinies.  Political  Hberty  (not 
freedom),  political  equality  (in  the  abstract)  and 
fraternity  (of  the  Cain  variety)  gained  by  the 
price  of  torrents  of  proletarian  blood,  were  turned 
by  the  middle  class  into  means  for  the  enhanced 
enslavement  of  the  toiling  masses.  In  modern  po- 
litical democracies  the  property-less  class,  the 
proletariat,  is  used  as  voting  cattle. 

There  is  nothing  left  to  the  proletariat  except 
to  fight  its  oppressor  and  exploiter  with  his  own 
weapon  and  on  his  own  ground.  In  order  to  be 
successful  in  this  struggle  the  proletariat  must 
cultivate  class-consciousness,  which  does  not 
mean  class-exclusiveness  or  class  hatred. 

The  struggle  of  the  middle  class  was  supposed 
at  the  time  when  the  struggle  was  going  on  to  be 
in  the  interest  not  of  a  new  exploiting  class,  but 


198  AMERICAN    PAUPERISM. 

rather  in  the  interest  of  all  humanity.  This  con- 
viction imparted  the  inspiration  to  noble  deeds 
of  self  sacrifice  on  the  part  of  the  great  actors  of 
the  French  Revolution.  The  middle  class,  after 
its  selfish  class  interests  were  satisfied,  became 
philistinized  and  conservative. 

The  struggle  between  the  proletariat  and  the 
middle  class  capitalism  is  of  an  eminently 
broader  and  deeper  significance  than  the  strug- 
gle of  any  other  classes  in  the  history  of  hu- 
manity. 

It  is  a  class  struggle  only  if  viewed  from  the 
surface. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  it  is  the  struggle  of  the 
entire  human  race  against  class-rule  and  exploita- 
tion of  men  by  men. 

Socialism  is  the  movement  of  the  human  race 
having  in  view  the  reconstruction  of  our  para- 
sitic social  economic  institutions  on  principles  of 
reason,  justice  and  love. 

That  Capitalism  has  outlived  its  utility  and 
must  be  succeeded  by  Collectivism  or  Socialism 
is  admitted  even  by  conservative  professors  of 
universities  endowed  by  plutocrats,  as  for  in- 
stance Professor  Oscar  L.  Triggs  of  the  Chicago 
University. 

In  his  article  "Industrial  Feudalism — and 
After"  he  summarizes  his  views  on  social  eco- 
nomic conditions  of  our  time  as  follows  : 

(i)  An  industrial  order  is  now  being  estab- 
lished which  corresponds  in  all  essential  respects 
with  what  is  known  in  political  history  as  feudal- 
ism. 

(2)  The  political  order,  so  far  as  it  is  shaped 
by  the  same  individuals  who  control  industry, 
partakes  also  of  the  nature  of  feudalism;  hence 


THE   ADOLITIOX    OF    POXERTV.  I99 

the  recrudescence  in  the  United  States  of  the 
principles  of  Hamilton  and  the  dominance  of  the 
Republican  party. 

(3)  ^^'hen  the  feudalistic  tendency  cul- 
minates in  the  establishment  of  a  centralized 
control  of  all  industries,  then  the  conscious  and 
deliberate  appropriation  of  that  power  of  the 
people  will  begin,  till  work  becomes  free  and  the 
worker  self  directive. 

(4)  Biology  and  psychology  testify  to  the 
ultimate  triumph  of  the  principle  of  self-activity. 
In  other  words,  all  the  forces  of  national  evolu- 
tion are  on  the  side  of  the  people.  (Wilshire's 
jNIagazine,  March,  1903.) 

In  order  to  comprehend  how  the  psychical 
environment  is  being  adjusted  to  the  changed 
material  environment,  it  is  necessary  to  take  into 
consideration  the  psychology  of  the  masses  of 
humanity. 

The  masses  of  humanity  at  any  given  time,  at 
any  period  of  history,  may  be  roughly  divided 
into  three  distinct  classes :  the  philistines,  the 
kickers  and  the  thinkers.  The  philistines  make 
up  the  overwhelming  majority  of  the  people ; 
the  kickers  are  ahvays  in  the  minority,  and  the 
thinkers  form  the  exceptional  element  of  human 
society. 

Who  are  the  philistines?  They  are  the  people 
living  according  to  the  v/isdom  of  past  genera- 
tions, according  to  tradition,  authority,  prece- 
dents. The  philistines  have  no  desire  to  reason 
analytically,  critically.  They  do  not  care  to 
know,  but  are  anxious  to  believe.  They  are 
fatalists  by  inclination.  To  them  the  world  is  at 
a  standstill.  Their  motto  is  "It  was,  is  and  will 
be  exactly  the  same  at  all  times  since  creation  to 


200  AMERICAN    PAUPERISM. 

the  crash  of  doom."  They  are  spiritually  asleep 
and  hate  to  be  disturbed  from  their  sluml)er. 
Stupidly  good  naturcd  under  normal  conditions, 
they  may  turn  furious  when  forcibly  aroused 
from  their  mental  lethargy  by  extraordinary 
events.  Once  aroused  they  may  turn  dangerous 
as  wild  beasts  and  commit  any  atrocities.  They 
make  up  the  mob  of  violent  popular  upheavals 
called  revolutions. 

Who  are  the  kickers?  They  are  the  people 
who  feel  instinctively  that  the  wisdom  of  past 
generations,  called  tradition,  authority,  prece- 
dent, in  the  course  of  time  outlives  its  utility  and 
turns  into  folly.  They  do  not  have  the  capacity 
for  critical  or  analytical  reasoning,  but  do  not 
show  any  aversion  to  independent  thought.  They 
are  rather  anxious  to  know  and  at  the  same  time 
ready  to  believe.  They  are  not  fatalists,  they 
feel  instinctively  that  the  world  is  always  chang- 
ing, that  past,  present  and  future  are  not  identi- 
cal. They  are  half  asleep  and  half  awake  spiritu- 
ally, and  do  not  object  to  being  aroused  from 
their  slumber  once  in  a  while  and  for  a  short 
period  of  time.  Once  aroused  they  form  an 
active  element  in  historical  events  and  drag  after 
themselves  the  usually  inert  masses  of  philistines. 
The  kickers  are  not  satisfied  wath  the  material 
conditions  around  them ;  they  vaguely  realize 
that  these  conditions  may  be  and  ought  to  be 
changed,  modified  or  revolutionized,  but  they  do 
not  possess  any  clearness  of  vision. 

Who  are  the  thinkers  ?  They  are  the  people  who 
clearlv  see  that  each  generation  has  to  live  in 
accordance  with  its  own  wisdom  and  in  conform- 
ity with  the  ever  changing  material  environment. 
Tradition,   authority,   precedent,   are   considered 


THE    ABOLITION    OF    POXERTY.  201 

by  them  as  so  many  fetiches  of  a  barbaric  past. 
They  are  able  and  wilHng  to  reason  critically, 
analytically,  and  trust  only  in  the  testimony  of 
their  senses  and  logic.  They  draw  a  sharp  line 
of  demarcation  between  the  knowable  and  un- 
knowable and  do  not  trouble  themselves  about 
the  last.  They  are  determinists  in  philosophy. 
To  them  the  world  appears  as  a  perpetual  change 
and  transformation.  They  are  thoroughly  alive 
spiritually.  They  know  and  know  that  they  know. 
They  form  at  all  times  the  ferment,  the  leaven 
of  social  life,  the  advance  guard  of  humanity, 
its  controlling  and  directing  element.  They  sup- 
ply consciousness  and  clear  vision  to  the  kickers, 
and,  through  the  medium  of  the  last,  drag  the 
philistine  masses  forward  and  onward  on  the 
highway  of  progress. 

In  our  time  of  general  unrest  and  dissatisfac- 
tion there  are  many  transitory  variations  of  the 
just  characterized  three  main  social  types,  there 
are  people  who  are  rather  hard  to  classify,  as 
they  possess  some  features  of  one  and  some  of 
another  type  at  once.  As  a  clear  distinct  type, 
the  middle  class  reformers  of  our  time  are  kick- 
ers, Socialists  are  thinkers.  And  yet  we  meet 
Philistines  among  Socialists  and  once  in  a  while 
thinkers  among  reformers. 

We  will,  however,  ignore  here  the  exceptions 
and  try  to  point  out  the  differences  between  mid- 
dle-class reformers  and  socialists. 

Middle-class  reformers,  as  a  rule,  do  not  seem 
to  realize  the  immense  complexity  and  strict  law- 
fulness of  social  economic  life  and  activity.  They 
believe  in  the  miracle  w^orking  power  of  paper 
legislation.  They  fail  to  see  that  it  is  futile  to 
even   attempt   to   introduce   legislative   measures 


202  AMERICAN    PAUPERISM. 

(however  apparently  salutary  to  the  oppressed 
classes)  which  are  out  of  joint  with  the  entire 
system  of  the  prevailing  social-economic  institu- 
tions ;  they  fail  to  realize  that  such  measures, 
even  if  introduced  and  passed,  would  have  neces- 
sarily to  remain  either  inoperative  or  even  in- 
jurious to  the  very  class  they  were  intended  to 
benefit.  Reformers  usually  concentrate  their  at- 
tention exclusively  on  some  single  symptom  of 
social  economic  disease,  and  claim  that  all  that 
is  necessary  for  the  restoration  of  social  economic 
health  is  to  make  that  particular  symptom  to  dis- 
appear. The  single  taxers,  for  instance,  con- 
centrate all  their  attention  on  one  single  mode  of 
exploitation — rent.  Currency  reformers  see  but 
one  source  of  social  economic  evils — speculation 
with  the  medium  of  exchange.  Direct  legisla- 
tionists  believe  that  if  every  citizen  should  have 
his  say,  be  it  wise  or  otherwise,  on  all  matters 
of  importance  to  the  State,  the  millennium  would 
be  an  accomplished  fact,  etc.,  etc.  The  single 
taxers  do  not  comprehend  that  it  is  absurd  to 
insist  on  the  nationalization  of  one  object  of  plu- 
tocratic monopoly,  the  soil,  while  defending 
"vested  rights"  on  other  objects  of  plutocratic 
monopoly,  namely  means  of  production  in  gen- 
eral. Direct  legislationists  fail  to  realize  that 
capitalism  has  no  use  for  enlightened  citizenship, 
but  assiduously  cultivates  voting  cattle.  The 
currency  reformers  fail  to  grasp  the  idea  that  it 
is  of  paramount  importance  to  introduce  rational 
and  just  economic  relations  in  general  before  at- 
tempting to  modify  the  medium  of  exchange,  that 
speculation  is  one  of  the  most  essential  methods 
of  capitalistic  economics.  The  prohibitionists  fail 
to  consider  that  a  state  of  society  based  on  ex- 


THE    ABOLITION    OF    I'OXKRTY.  203 

ploitations  of  human  labor  cannot  get  along  with- 
out intoxicants.  Honest  and  sincere  reformers 
have  nothing  to  expect  from  Capitalism. 

Socialism  is  the  reform  of  all  reforms.  It  is 
rather  inclusive  than  exclusive.  It  contains  all 
that  is  of  lasting  value  in  bona  fide  reform  move- 
ments and  vastly  more  than  that  on  a  deeper, 
broader  and  sounder  foundation  than  the  average 
reformers  dare  to  dream  of. 

Socialism  for  instance  demands  together  with 
the  single-taxers  the  nationalization  of  the  soil, 
but  at  the  same  time  demands  the  nationalization 
of  all  means  of  production  and  distribution.  So- 
cialist platforms  contain  a  direct  legislation  plank. 
Under  collective  ownership  and  operations  of  all 
the  means  of  production  and  transportation,  spec- 
ulation with  the  medium  of  exchange,  as  any 
speculation  in  general,  would  be  impossible.  So- 
cialism does  not  confuse  symptoms  of  social  dis- 
ease with  the  disease  itself.  It  strikes  at  the  root 
of  all  social  evils,  exploitations  of  men  by  men, 
parasitism.  It  does  not  pretend  to  change  human 
nature.  It  proposes  only  to  do  away  with  the 
very  incentive  for  exploitation  of  men  by  men 
by  substituting  collective  instead  of  private  own- 
ership of  the  means  of  production  and  distribu- 
tion, by  inaugurating  economic  democracy  with- 
out which  political  democracy  is  a  snare  and 
delusion.  Socialism,  as  a  primarily  humanitarian 
movement,  deserves  the  interest  and  sympathy 
of  all  true  lovers  of  mankind.  Socialism  stands 
for  brotherly  co-operation  of  all  the  members  of 
the  human  family  for  the  purpose  of  exploiting 
the  inexhaustible  treasures  of  their  common 
mother,  nature.  It  stands  for  emulation  instead 
of  competition,  for  the  survival  of  the  best  in- 


204  AMERICAN    PAUPERISM. 

stead  of  the  most  cunning  and  unscrupulous,  for 
the  elevation  instead  of  degeneration  of  the  hu- 
man type.  The  question  now  arises :  How  will 
Socialism,  as  materialized  in  the  co-operative 
commonwealth  of  the  future,  be  inaugurated? 

Far  as  we  may  penetrate  with  our  spiritual 
vision  into  the  gray  vista  of  hoary  antiquity  of 
the  human  race,  we  clearly  distinguish  two  car- 
dinal social  forces  contending  for  supremacy. 
These  social  forces  are,  on  one  side,  the  will  of 
the  broad  masses  of  the  people  and  on  the  other 
side  the  brute  force  in  the  hands  of  a  ruling 
minority. 

At  the  dawn  of  civilization  the  brute  forces 
reigned  supreme,  while  the  will  of  the  common 
people  was  but  vaguely  expressed.  With  the 
growing  spiritual  development  of  the  masses, 
however,  the  physical  force  concentrated  in  the 
hands  of  the  organized  ruling  minority  was  more 
and  more  counter-balanced  by  the  popular  will 
or  public  opinion.  The  gradual  pacification  of 
European  international  relations  with  the  devel- 
opment of  democratic  political  institutions  is  a 
fact  that  cannot  escape  the  attention  of  the  clear 
sighted  student  of  modern  history.  Wars  have 
become  scarce  since  the  second  part  of  the  last 
century,  at  least  among  civilized  nations.  The 
bullet  is  kept  in  check  by  the  ballot  in  interna- 
tional affairs.  At  the  same  time  European  na- 
tions are  compelled  by  the  ruling  classes  to  spend 
their  very  substance  for  the  maintenance  of  an 
armed  peace.  The  European  continent,  figura- 
tively speaking,  bristles  with  bayonets,  glares 
with  the  barbaric  splendor  and  offensive  ostenta- 
tion so  characteristically  peculiar  to  standing 
bodies   of   scientifically   trained    atid    artistically 


THE   ABOLITION    OF    POVERTY.  2O5 

drilled  professional  wholesale  assassins  called 
military  men.  The  science  and  art  of  wholesale 
murder  called  war  has  reached  in  modern  times 
a  stage  of  perfection  calculated  to  delight  the 
heart  of  the  most  unrelenting  enemy  of  the  hu- 
man race.  Militarism  is  celebrating  odious  or- 
gies in  the  two  most  civilized  countries  of  the 
European  continent,  Germany  and  France.  The 
recent  policy  of  the  government  of  the  United 
States  shows  clearly  some  tendency  towards  mili- 
tarism. 

The  ruling  classes  are  getting  uneasy.  The 
growing  intelligence  of  the  toiling  masses  ap- 
pears as  a  menace  to  the  powder  of  the  parasitic 
minority.  It  is  against  "the  internal  enemy'', 
the  "dangerous  classes",  that  the  ruling  parasitic 
minority  prepares  its  murderous  cohorts  of  hired 
wholesale  assassins  called  armies  and  militias. 
At  the  same  time  the  proletariat,  the  toiling 
masses,  remain  unarmed  and  unskilled  in  the 
arts  of  war. 

There  is  the  danger.  The  parasitic  classes  are 
ready  to  drown  in  torrents  of  blood  of  the  prole- 
tariat any  serious  attempt  on  the  part  of  the  last 
to  proclaim  the  co-operative  commonwealth.  As 
in  the  case  of  international  relations — it  is  the 
ballot  alone  that  can  keep  in  check  the  bullet. 
The  proletariat  has  to  realize  that  its  only  salva- 
tion consists  in  the  intelligent  use  of  civic  rights 
before  it  will  be  too  late.  The  proletariat  has  to 
realize  that  its  only  salvation  consists  in  inde- 
pendent, class-conscious  political  action.  It  has 
to  realize  that  it  cannot  expect  anything  good 
from  the  old  capitalistic  parties  and  everything 
from  their  own  Socialist  party.  The  old  politi- 
cal parties  presented  to  the  working  classes  tokens 


2o6  AMERICAN    PAUPERISM. 

of  their  devotions  to  the  interests  of  the  prole- 
tariat in  Homestead,  Pulhnan  and  the  bull-pens 
of  the  anthracite  region.  The  old  parties  tolerate 
child  labor,  sweat  shops,  convict  labor.  The  old 
parties  are  honeycombed  with  demagogic  jug- 
glery and  political  corruption.  The  old  parties 
Christianize  and  civilize  Filipinos  by  water  cures. 
The  workingmen  have  to  realize  that  to  vote  for 
the  old  parties  means  to  vote  for  the  perpetuation 
of  wage  slavery,  for  the  degradation  of  the  noble 
human  being  to  the  level  of  a  witless  beast  of 
burden. 

Economic  or  Social  Democracy  means  organ- 
ized peace,  the  rule  of  the  will  of  the  people  ex- 
pressed by  the  ballot ;  it  means  the  relegation  of 
brute  force  in  the  state  affairs  to  the  relics  of 
the  barbaric  past. 

The  struggle  between  the  survival  of  the  bar- 
baric past  and  the  ideals  of  the  future,  between 
the  will  and  interest  of  the  toiling  masses  and 
the  power  of  the  exploiters  is  going  on  before  our 
eyes. 

There  is  a  constant  war  going  on  between 
Labor  and  Capital.  The  cause  of  that  class 
struggle  between  the  producers  of  all  material) 
wealth  on  one  and  the  owners  of  all  the  means 
of  production  and  distribution  on  the  other  side 
is  not  generally  known.  The  economic  interests 
of  these  two  classes  of  contemporary  society  are 
directly  opposed  to  each  other.  The  toilers 
strive  to  retain  as  much  of  the  product  of  their 
labor  as  it  is  possible  under  the  prevailing  social 
economic  conditions.  The  owners  of  the  means 
of  production  and  distribution,  in  their  turn,  en- 
deavor to  appropriate  as  much  of  the  product  of 


TIIL:    ACOLITIOX    OF    POVERTY-.  20/ 

the  toil  of  their  wage-slaves  as  they  may  succeed 
in  doing. 

The  relations  between  the  modern  producer 
and  his  master,  between  the  proletarian  and  the 
capitalist,  are  regulated^  chiefly  by  the  prevailing 
social  economic  conditions,  expressed  and  embod- 
ied in  the  political  institutions  controlled  and  di- 
rected by  the  ruling  class.  The  political  institu- 
tions of  a  country  make  up  in  their  entirety  what 
we  briefly  call  the  State. 

The  class  that  succeeds  in  getting  control  of 
the  State  must  of  necessity  be  in  power  to  modify 
social  economic  conditions  to  suit  best  its  class 
interests.  That  class  gains  the  power  to  dictate 
the  terms  to  all  other  classes  of  the  nation  and 
may  enforce  submission  to  its  will  in  the  name 
and  by  the  authority  of  the  State.  Political 
power  and  economic  power  supplement  each 
other.  The  ruling  classes  naturally  use  their 
economic  power  as  a  means  to  acquire  and  retain 
political  power  and  then  use  the  last  as  a  means 
to  increase  the  first.  On  the  other  hand,  political 
dependence  leads  inevitably  to  economic  depend- 
ence. 

There  can  be  no  actual  political  equality  with- 
out economic  democracy,  or  social  democracy. 

The  conclusions  suggested  by  these  general 
considerations  may  be  applied  directly  to  the 
relations  between  Capital  and  Labor  in  the  United 
States. 

Who  actually  controls  our  National,  State  and 
Municipal  administrations?  Who  spends  mil- 
lions of  dollars  on  political  campaigns  ?  Who  are 
the  actual  masters  of  our  legislative  and  execu- 
tive, our  judiciary  and  military  institutions? 
Who  owns  the  entire  press,  who  inspires  the  pul- 


208  AMERICAN    PAUPERISM. 

pit,  who  controls  our  institutions  of  learning'' 
Who  are  the  real  commanders  of  our  army  and 
navy?  To  put  these  questions  means  to  answer 
them.  The  Capitalists  capture  the  State  for  all 
there  is  in  it,  and  mainly  for  the  social  economic 
power  it  gives  them  over  the  voting  cattle,  the 
nominally  free  citizens  of  the  United  States. 
Both  old  Capitalistic  parties  grossly  flatter 
these  nominal  citizens  and  promise  them  great 
things  before  election.  After  election  the  same 
"fellow  citizens"  who  voted  into  power  the  rep- 
resentatives of  one  or  the  other  capitalistic  par- 
ties are  neglected,  bulldozed  and  maltreated. 

The  average  American  proletarian  fails  to  see 
the  connection  between  his  "job"  and  his  "bal- 
lot", between  economics  and  politics.  He  will, 
however,  have  to  open  his  eyes  in  this  connection 
before  he  may  expect  to  improve  his  conditions 
materially  and  lastingly. 

As  long  as  the  capitalists  control  our  National, 
State  and  Municipal  administration  through  the 
medium  of  any  or  both  of  the  old  parties  this  ad- 
ministration will  be  managed  in  direct  violation 
of  the  rights  of  labor.  As  long  as  capitalists 
will  have  a  chance  to  spend  millions  on  influenc- 
ing the  "voting  cattle"  in  national  and  local  polit- 
ical campaigns  the  political  state  will  be  appro- 
priated by  them  and  their  hired  servants,  the 
professional  politicians. 

As  long  as  the  capitalists  wall  make  and  exe- 
cute laws  the  laboring  class  will  be  forced  to 
break  laws  and  be  punished  for  doing  it.  As 
long  as  the  capitalists  remain  the  actual  com- 
manders of  our  armies  and  navy  these  tremen- 
dous physical  forces  will  be  used  for  the  exter- 


'ITIE    ABOI.ITIOX    OF    POVERTY.  209 

mination  of  "riotous  strikers"  and  conquests  of 
new  markets. 

As  long  as  the  capitalists  own  the  press,  the 
pulpit,  the  bar,  the  educational  institutions,  gen- 
erations after  generations  will  be  trained  in  a 
spirit  directly  inimical  to  the  toiling  masses. 

In  order  to  ha.ve  at  least  a  ghost  of  a  show  of 
success  in  their  struggle  against  private  capitalism 
the  proletariat  must  light  widi  weapons  just  as 
efficient  as  those  of  their  adversaries,  must  meet 
the  enemy  on  its  own  ground  of  independent 
class-conscious  and  race-conscious  action.  The 
laboring  class  must  strike  at  the  ballot  box  for 
their  own  party,  the  Socialist  party.  By  captur- 
ing the  political  power  the  proletariat  will  be 
enabled  to  make  and  execute  its  own  laws  and 
turn  the  United  States  into  a  gigantic  labor 
union.  The  transition  from  Capitalism  to  Social- 
ism will  then  be  a  peaceful  political  change  (coup 
d'etat)  instead  of  a  bloody  civil  war. 

Socialism,  after  the  co-operative  common- 
wealth is  inaugurated,  proposes  to  abolish  all 
economic  class  privileges,  to  introduce  a  new  era 
of  civilization,  an  era  of  peace  and  good  will  to 
all  men,  women  and  children,  to  establish  the 
supreme  authority  of  the  will  of  the  toiling 
masses,  of  the  ballot,  to  abolish  forever  the  reign 
of  the  brute  force  of  the  bullet.  Under  social- 
ism, poverty  and  parasitism,  these  Siamese  twins 
of  the  harlot  of  Capitalism,  will  have  no  place. 
There  will  be  no  millionaires  and  no  paupers. 

The  humanizing,  pacifying  influence  of  social- 
ism is  being  felt  even  now  in  Germany  and 
France. 

During  the  excitement  of  the  Franco-Prussian 
war,  when  jingoism  and  race  hatred  reached  their 


2IO  AMFJUCAX    PAUP^.RIS^^. 

climax,  the  German  and  French  sociaHsts  were 
the  only  ones  who  remained  cool  headedly  and 
warm  heartedly  on  the  high  ground  of  humani- 
tarian principles  of  brotherly  love,  the  only  ones 
who  had  the  courage  to  protest  most  emphatic- 
ally against  the  fratricidal  war  among  German 
and  French  proletarians,  instigated  by  and  in  the 
interests  of  the  parasitic  classes. 

The  democratizing  influence  of  Socialism  was 
and  is  now  demonstrated  in  France. 

When  the  French  middle  class  republic  was  in 
danger  of  being  destroyed  by  the  reactionary 
elements  of  the  feudal  aristocracy,  the  church 
and  plutocracy,  backed  by  an  army  organization 
rotten  to  the  very  core,  putrid  with  moral  cor- 
ruption and  reeking  with  sensual  filth,  the  social- 
ist stepped  manfully  to  the  front  and  saved  the 
ballot  from  the  bullet.  When  this  unholy  trinity 
of  the  scions  of  feudalism,  plutocracy  and  mili- 
tarism, in  order  to  cover  its  crimes  and  atroci- 
ties, accused  and  punished  an  innocent  man,  the 
socialists  again  saved  the  honor  of  their  nation 
by  exonerating  the  innocent  man  and  unmasking 
the  actual  perpetrators  of  the  heinous  crime  of 
treason. 

The  tyrannical  proclivities  of  the  loquacious 
Emperor  of  Germany  are  kept  in  check  not  by  the 
weak-kneed  middle  class  liberals,  but  by  the  vig- 
orous opposition  of  the  sturdy  Social  Democratic 
party.  The  encroachment  upon  popular  rights  on 
the  part  of  the  feudal  aristocracy  of  Prussia,  the 
agrarians,  meets  its  strongest  opposition  from  the 
social  democrats.  It  is  the  Social  Democratic 
Party  of  Germany  that  exposes  the  moral  rotten- 
ness of  the  parasitic  classes  and  systematically 
champions  the  interests  of  the  exploited  masses. 


Tlir:    ABOLITION    OF    POVERTY.  211 

The  most  conservative  scientists  like  Prof. 
Mommsen  and  others  testify  on  their  own  accord 
to  it  pubHcly  and  advise  the  people  to  vote  for  the 
only  political  party  in  Germany,  that  means  well 
with  the  people  and  has  the  moral  stamina  to  de- 
fend right  against  might.  It  is  significant  enough 
and  augurs  well  for  the  future  co-operative  com- 
monwealth that  socialists  form  the  backbone  of 
the  French  bourgeois  republic  and  preserve  the 
liberties  of  the  German  middle  class  against  the 
onslaughts  of  the  surviving  remnants  of  feudal- 
ism. Doing  this  the  party  of  the  proletariat  is 
true  to  the  traditions  of  the  glorious  past  of  the 
class  it  represents.  Not  the  middle  class,  not  the 
bourgeois,  vanquished  feudalism.  With  the  touch- 
ing naivete  of  a  young,  good-natured  giant  the 
proletariat  left  the  fruit  of  his  victory  in  the  hands 
of  the  rapacious  middle  class.  When  in  the  posses- 
sion of  political  power  the  middle  class  allied 
itself  with  the  former  foe,  the  remnants  of  the 
feudal  aristocracy,  against  the  proletariat.  The 
proletariat  of  Europe  profited  by  the  lesson  of 
history  and  organized  itself  into  an  independent 
political  socialistic  party,  serving  as  an  advance 
guard  of  the  world  wide  international  socialist 
movement  to  guard  the  ballot  from  the  bullet. 

Approximately  similar  conditions  prevail  in  the 
United  States.  The  abolition  of  African  slavery 
was  accomplished  in  the  interests  of  white  wage 
slave-holders  of  the  North.  The  civil  war  was  a 
struggle  between  the  aristocracy  of  the  South  and 
the  middle  class  of  the  North. 

The  same  political  party  that  was  instrumental 
in  the  abolition  of  chattel  slavery  gave  ascendency 
to  Caucasian  wage  slavery,  and  is  turned  now 
into  a  conservative  power  in  the  United  States. 


2T2  AMERTCAX    PAUPKRIS.Ar. 

The  Democratic  ppirty  received  its  death  blow  at 
the  moment  it  identified  itself  with  African  chat- 
tel slavery.  Since  that  moment  it  has  turned 
into  a  reactionary  power  in  the  United  States.  It 
lost  its  grip  on  the  current  events  of  the  age,  it 
failed  to  adjust  itself  to  the  new  social  economic 
conditions  and  ceased  to  represent  any  vital  prin- 
ciples. Astute  politicians  like  IMark  Hanna  are 
clear  sighted  enough  to  recognize  and  candidly 
admit  that  the  battle  royal  between  the  modern 
wage  slave-holders,  the  capitalists,  and  the  prole- 
tariat will  be  waged  between  the  Republican  and 
Socialistic  parties. 

Meanv/hile  the  Republican  party  has  already 
stepped  in  the  footprints  of  its  predecessors,  the 
Democratic  party.  The  Republican  party  has 
identified  itself  with  the  cause  of  wage-slavery 
and  will  be  compelled  by  the  victorious  march  of 
the  party  of  the  proletariat,  the  Socialist  party, 
to  take  the  back  seat  occupied  now  by  the  expiring 
Democratic  party. 

The  Socialist  party,  the  party  of  the  toiling 
masses,  is  destined  to  complete  the  work  begun 
by  the  abolitionists  and  is  bound  to. turn  into  a 
ruling  power  in  the  United  States  in  the  near 
future.  The  old  abolitionists  fought  for  the 
emancipation  of  African  slaves ;  the  new  aboli- 
tionists,  tJie  Socialisfs,  are  lighting  for  the  aboli- 
tion of  all  kinds  of  slavery,  for  the  abolition 
of  parasitism  and  poverty.  The  gigantic 
strides  made  by  the  vast  capitalistic  consolida- 
tions (trusts,  monopolies),  the  adventurous 
imperialistic  colonial  policy  of  the  United  States, 
the  growth  of  militarism  and  many  other  events 
could  not  fail  to  advance  civic  education  among 
the  masses,  could  not  fail  to  open  the  eyes  of  the 


THE    ABOLITION    OF    POVMRTY. 


213 


most  apathetic  philistines  to  tlie  dangers  of  ap- 
proaching plutocratic  fcuclaHsin. 

As  a  result  we  see  and  feel  that  Socialism  is  in 
the  air.  The  vote  cast  during  the  last  election 
for  the  Socialist  party  reached  about  300,000. 


The 


following-    figures    show    the    marvelous 


growth  of  Socialism  all  over  the  world 


1895 
1897 

1894 
1898 
1900 

1872 
1884 
1887 
1890 
1892 

1895 
1898 
1900 

i88s 
1888 
1892 
1898 

1867 
1871 
1874 
1877 
1878 
1881 
1884 
1887 
1890 

1893 
1898 
1903 

1S95 
1902 


AUSTRALIA. 


.  90,000 
.750,000 

■334,500 
•543-324 
.463,000 


DENMARK. 


3IS 

6,805 

8,408 

^7,^2,2 

20,098 

25,019 

32,000 

43,285 

FRANCE. 

30,000 

91,000 

800,000 

1,000,000 

GERMANY. 

30,000 

101,927 

351,670 

486,843 

437,158 

311,961 

599,990 

767,128 

1,427,008 

1,786,738 

2,125,000 

3,100,000 

GREAT  BRITAIN. 

55,000 

350,000 


HOLLAND. 
1901      39,000 


ITALY. 


1893  20,000 

1895  76,400 

1897  134,496 

1900  215,841 


NORWAY. 

SERVIA. 

SPAIN. 


I9OI      7,013 

1895      55,000 


1893    7,000 

1895    14,000 

1897    28,000 

1901    25,000 

SWEDEN. 

1902      48,000 

SWITZERLAND. 

1890      13,500 

1893      29,822 

1896      36,468 

I9OI      100,000 

UNITED  STATES. 

1890      13,704 

1891      16,552 

1892      21,512 

1893      25,666 

1894      30,020 

1895      34,869 

1896      36,275 

1S97      55,550 

1898      91,749 

1900      135,770 

igo2  about    300,000 


214  AMERICAN    PAUPERISM. 

_  The  rate  of  increase  of  the  Socialistic  vote  in- 
dicates a  marvelous  growth  of  pubhc  conscious- 
ness. 

The  question  now  arises :  will  history  repeat 
itself  literally?  Will  the  abolition  of  parasitism 
and  poverty,  closely  connected  with  Capitalism 
and  wage  slavery,  be  brought  about  by  a  bloody 
civil  war_  just  as  the  abolition  of  chattel  slavery, 
or  will  it  be  accomplished  peacefully  bv  the 
ballot? 

There  seems  to  be  one  factor  in  the  modern 
abolition  movement  called  Socialism,  that  rather 
augurs  a  pacific  solution  of  the  problem. 

The  abolition  of  chattel  slavery  was  accom- 
plished in  a  contest  between  two  factions  of  the 
same  race  in  the  interests  of  a  nevv^  class  of  slave- 
holders called  Capitalists.  The  slaves  themselves 
belonged  to  a  different  and  lower  race,  that  took 
but  a  small  part  in  the  struggle  for  their  own 
emancipation. 

The  abolition  of  wage  slavery  is  in  the  interest 
of  the  entire  human  race,  of  economic  democracy 
and  true  freedom.  The  toiling  masses  form  the 
overwhelming  majority  of  the  people  and  voters. 
If  the  wage  slaves  only  waken  to  the  conscious- 
ness of  the  solidarity  of  their  interests  and  power, 
if  the  proletarians  will  make  up  their  minds  to 
express  their  will  by  votes  for  their  own  political 
party,  the  victory  may  be,  must  be,  a  peaceful 
one. 

If,  however,  the  wage  workers  will  stubbornly 
refuse  to  take  part  in  independent  political  action, 
they  will  gradually  be  disfranchised  as  the  ne- 
groes in  the  South  were,  and  the  bullet  will  kill 
the  ballot.  One  part  of  the  proletariat  called 
soldiers  will  be  ordered  to    shoot    into    uncon- 


THE    ABOLITIOX    OF    TOVKKTV.  215 

ditional  submission  to  tlie  plutocratic  feudal  lords 
the  rest  of  the  proletariat  called  laborers,  while 
the  lords  themselves  will  rub  their  hands  and  look 
on  in  fiendish  glee. 

To  avoid  this  the  proletarian  movement  must 
do  an  immense  amount  of  educational  work ;  it 
must  appeal  to  the  brains  and  hearts  of  men ;  it 
must  use  as  weapons  exact  knowledge,  critical 
thought,  ideas  and  ideals.  As  educators  in  the 
most  comprehensive  sense  of  the  word  the  lead- 
ers of  the  modern  abolition  movement  must  ex- 
ercise a  great  deal  of  patience,  tolerance  and  for- 
bearance. 

First  of  all,  and  above  all,  however,  they  must 
possess  the  courage  of  their  convictions  and  never 
cease  their  educational  crusade  till  their  mission 
is  fulfilled  and  parasitism  and  poverty  are  no 
more.  With  the  gentle  Quaker  poet  and  singer 
of  the  old  abolition  movement  let  us  say : 

"Friend  of  the  poor ! — go  on— 

Speak  for  the  truth  and  right ! 
Onward — though  hate  and  scorn 

Gloom  round  thee  as  the  night. 
Speak — at  each  word  of  thine, 

Some  ancient  fraud  is  riven, 
And  through  its  rents  of  ruin  shine 

The  sunbeams  and  the  heaven ! 

"Speak — for  thy  voice  will  be 

Welcome  in  each  abode 
Where  manhood's  heart  and  knee 

Are  bended  but  to  God ; 
Where  honest  bosoms  hold 

Their  holy  birthright  well ; 
Where  Freedom  spurns  at  Mammon's  gold; 

Where  Man  is  not  to  sell. 

"Speak  for  the  poor  man's  cause — 
For  labor's  just  reward — 


2l6  AMERICAX    TAUPErUSM. 

For  violated  law 

Of  Nature  and  of  God! 

Speak — thunder  in  Oppression's  ear, 
Deliverance  to  the  slave! 

"Ay,  speak — while  there  is  time, 
For  all  a  freeman's  claim, 

Ere  thought  becomes  a  crime, 
And  Freedom  but  a  name ! 

While  yet  the  Tongue  and  Pen 
And  Press  are  unforbid 

And  we  dare  to  feel  and  act  as  man- 
Speak —  as  our  fathers  did ! 

"The  land  we  love  ere  long 

Shall  kindle  at  thy  call ; 
Falsehood  and  charter'd  Wrong 

And  legal  Robbery,  fall : 
The  proud  shall  not  combine — 

The  secret  counsel  cease — 
And  underneath  his  sheltering  vine 

Shall  labor  dwell  in  peace ! 

"Perish  shall  all  which  takes 

From  Labor's  board  and  can ! 
Perish  all  which  makes 

A  Spaniel  of  the  Man.' 
With  freshened  courage,  then, 

On  to  the  glorious  end — 
Ever  the  same  as  thou  has  been — 

The  poor  man's  fastest  friend!" 


SUPPLEMENT 


JESUS  OR  MAMMON? 


BY 

J.  FELIX 


"I  am  the  voice  of  one  crying  in  the  wilderness, 
make  straight  the  way  of  the  Lord." 

Crying  aloud  against  the  blasphemy  of  those 
who  devour  the  exploited  laborer,  and  for  a  pre- 
tense make  long  prayers  and  give  alms  in  His 
name  !  Crying  bitterly  from  a  wilderness  of  con- 
tradictions against  a  society  which,  teaching  the 
young  in  the  doctrines  of  the  Redeemer  that 
it  is  more  blessed  to  serve  than  be  served,  to 
give  than  to  receive,  yet  supports  a  system  under 
which  those  who  will  not  devour  must  chose  to 
be  devoured  !  Crying  piteously  to  those  who  pro- 
fess His  religion  of  love  to  come  boldly  forth  and 
help  make  the  paths  straight,  that  love  may  walk 
without  brutality  and  lead  humanity  to  that  king- 
dom of  God,  where  love  may  be  a  living  law  in- 
stead of  a  dead  letter.  Will  ye  never  know  the 
Master's  meaning  when  He  warned  you  against 
offending  the  little  ones  ?  Will  ye  never  perceive 
that  when  ye  teach  a  child  to  love  neighbor  as 
self,  in  honor  to  prefer  one  another,  "that  all  these 
things  shall  be  added,"  that  righteousness  and 
truth  and  honesty  of  dealing  are  sure  paths  to 
217 


2l8  SUPPLEMENT. 

happiness  and  success  in  life  and  then  push  that 
innocent  soul  out  into  a  world  of  greed  where 
money  is  power,  where  every  path  is  closed  to 
those  who  try  to  practice  what  you  teach ;  will  ye 
never  learn  that  in  doing  this  ye  give  mortal 
ofifense  to  His  lambs?  Can  ye  not  see  that  only 
by  throwing  all  your  energies  into  the  effort  to 
do  away  with  conditions  which  make  a  Christian 
life  a  practical  impossibility  can  you  escape  the 
terrible  sentence  of  the  children's  Christ?  It  were 
better  ye  had  a  millstone  tied  to  your  necks  and 
ye  were  even  cast  into  the  sea  where  it  is  deep- 
est. Come,  brethren,  let  us  reason  together.  Do 
you  not.  fellow  Christian,  dread  for  your  chil- 
dren and  all  posterity  that  which  has  been  your 
fate  ?  Surely  not  all  who  claim  to  follow  "in  His 
steps"  are  despicable  hypocrites !  Surely  my 
brothers  and  sisters  of  the  faith  are  all  as  honest 
and  sincere  as  am  I.  That  being  so,  they  must 
suffer  as  I  do.  They,  too.  must  feel  at  war  with 
themselves.  They,  too,  must  feel  lone  and  weary 
and  heartsick  at  their  vain  endeavors  to  live  the 
Christ  life.  Surely  I  am  only  a  son  of  man  and 
not  the  only  son  of  man  to  feel  the  horror  of 
subjection  to  conditions  which  make  His  way  a 
practically  impossible  way.  To  be  sure  He  said 
that  there  would  be  terrible  suffering  and  many 
bleeding  hearts  and  estrangements  of  kindred  for 
His  sake  and  the  coming  of  His  kingdom.  Oh, 
but  He  also  made  a  promise.  He  never  said 
that  poor  humanity  must  forever  be  at  war  and 
suffer  everlastingly.  He  bade  us  make  straight 
the  crooked  paths.  He  commissioned  us  to  re- 
move all  obstacles.  We  are  to  overcome  Mam- 
mon and  the  greedy  horde  of  his  worshippers. 
We  are  to  clear  away  the    institutions    which 


JESUS  OR  :mammOx\?  219 

legalize  the  oppression  of  the  weak  by  the  power- 
ful, the  enslavement  of  the  poor  by  the  rich. 
We  are  to  open  wide  the  gates,  smooth  the  road 
and  clear  away  the  encumbrances  of  the  usurer 
and  exploiter  so  that  a  man  may  live  by  the 
sweat  of  his  brow  without  stealing  the  wage  of 
his  neighbor.  So  that  man  may  love  his  fellow- 
man  without  starving  his  own  family.  So  that 
we  may  pray  for  the  success  of  all  our  fellows 
without  dreading  that  one  man's  gain  is  another 
man's  loss  and  that  other  man  may  mean  our- 
selves. Do  you  think  it  wise  to  make  a  living 
God  appear  under  necessity  of  starving  one  that 
another  may  be  blessed  with  untold  wealth?  Did 
"Our  Father  in  Heaven"  provide  for  the  grow- 
ing of  only  one-half  enough  bread  to  go  around  ? 
Or  are  we  countenancing  a  system  which  enables 
one  man  to  seize  the  share  of  ten  so  that  we  may 
build  almshouses,  prisons  and  poor  relief  sta- 
tions for  the  other  nine  ?  Listen  to  my  cry !  Par- 
don much  use  of  the  personal  pronoun.  It  is  a 
personal  story.  My  hope  is  that  it  is  common  to 
so  many,  that  it  will  help  answ^er  some  of  these 
burning  questions.  Oh,  I  am  sure  my  appeal  is 
not  going  to  be  in  vain.  Though  I  am  without 
wisdom  or  influence  or  power,  I  have  love, 
boundless,  all  prevailing,  devouring  love.  Love 
is  God.  Will  you  defy  my  God?  Will  you  with- 
stand the  power  which  brought  forth  and  sus- 
tains the  universe?  Will  ye  say  to  Love,  "Get 
thee  hence?"  Ye  cannot  resist.  Even  out  of  my 
wilderness  ye  nuist  hear  my  cry  and  respond  to 
my  call.  Ye  could  jeer  at  logic  and  refuse  to 
reason,  but  Love  ye  can  neither  conquer  nor 
ignore.  There  is  no  danger.  In  an  age  when  a 
threat  to  violate  the  so-called  rights  of  property 


220  SL'l'l'LE.MENT. 

arouses  more  feeling  and  louder  protests  than 
the  wanton  destruction  of  thousands  of  lives,  the 
bold  proclamation  of  a  rule  of  love  without 
profit  must  attract  interest  if  not  respectful  at- 
tention. Is  it  a  wonderful  thing  that  one  who 
professes  to  follow  Jesus  of  Nazareth  should  feel 
Jove  impelled  to  help  and  cheer  every  living  fel- 
low soul?  Must  not  a  sincere  follower  of  the 
Great  Lover  of  Children,  the  originator  of  the 
religion  of  the  rights  of  the  lowly,  and  the  weak 
be  wrung  at  heart  to  see  innocent  childhood  sold 
for  gain  and  virtue  sacrificed  to  Mammon?  Are 
you  surprised  that  one  who  drinks  of  the  cup  and 
eats  of  the  bread  in  "remembrance  of  Him" 
should  be  in  love  with  all  the  universe?  To  me 
this  seems  natural,  but  oh  it  is  so  hard  to  be 
consistent !  The  rich  and  the  poor  may  worship 
together.  They  may  profess  the  same  love  of 
God.  The  high  and  the  low  lift  their  voices  in 
praise  and  thanksgiving  to  the  good  loving 
Father  in  Heaven  and  then  the  rich  go  out  to 
exploit  the  poor,  to  defraud  the  other  rich,  the 
high  to  oppress  the  low,  the  low  to  displace  the 
higher.  Do  they  associate  together,  dine  and  live 
together?  Are  they  friendly  and  helpful  to  each 
other,  seeking  each  other's  company  and  culti- 
vating a  close  fellowship  in  preparation  for  the 
future  co-existence  which  they  profess  to  be 
looking  toward  in  a  paradise  of  Loving  bliss? 
Certainly  not.  They  are  in  constant  antagonism. 
The  poor  want  to  be  rich  and  the  rich  want  to 
get  richer  for  fear  of  becoming  poorer.  Prac- 
tically every  Christian  strives  with  all  his  might 
for  gain.  Yet  Christ  taught  that  material  wealth 
was  such  a  bar  to  entrance  into  His  Kingdom, 
that   only   the   miraculous   intervention   of   God 


JESUS    OR    MAMMON?  221 

could  save  a  rich  man.  Did  Christ  lie  when  he 
said  that?  Are  we  all  hypocrites?  I  tell  you 
neither  does  the  Lord's  word  fail  nor  are  we  all 
hypocrites.  We  are  living  in  a  state  of  chronic 
violence.  I  speak  not  of  those  who  scofif  at  all 
religion.  I  am  not  addressing  those  who  openly 
avow  themselves  devoted  to  no  cult  or  creed 
save  that  of  self.  I  am  appealing  to  those  who 
would  follow  the  King  of  Truth  and  live  by  the 
gospel  of  Love.  Who  will,  but  cannot?  The 
Christ  said  violence  must  come  but  woe  to  him 
who  brings  it.  I  say,  woe  also  to  him  who 
maintains,  countenances  and  fails  to  exert  him- 
self to  defeat  violence.  He  is  equally  guilty  with 
him  who  causes  violence.  The  worst  of  all  vio- 
lence is  that  which  offends  against  the  laudable 
aspirations  of  youth  to  follow  in  the  steps  of  Him 
who  said,  "Little  children  love  one  another!" 
You  have  to  live  in  a  world  where  man  is  ar- 
ranged against  man.  You  toil  for  bread  amid 
conditions  natural  to  beasts  of  prey.  You  teach 
your  children  that.  "Love  is  the  greatest  thing 
in  the  world."  When  the  child  begins  to  reason 
you  show  it  that  money  is  the  indispensable 
thing.  Oh^  listen  to  the  cry  of  one  who  like  many 
of  you  has  been  faced  by  the  questioning,  inno- 
cent "why"  of  a  son  or  daughter.  The  Kingdom 
of  Heaven  is  at  hand.  The  harvest  is  white  for 
the  cutting.  Why  stand  idle?  Why  do  ye 
linger?  Come  forth  in  the  power  of  His  might. 
Come  in  the  name  of  the  King  of  Truth.  Come 
in  the  name  of  Love  of  Humanity.  Come  for  the 
sake  of  the  Martyrs  of  countless  ages  who  cry 
from  the  past  at  the  danger  of  seeing  the  price- 
less heritage,  the  fruit  of  all. their  sacrifice  and 
struggle,  lost  through  our  selfishness  and  indif- 


222  SUPPLEMENT. 

ference.  Come  for  the  sake  of  posterity  which 
will  surely  call  us  to  account!  Brethren,  we  must 
think  and  work !  We  must  Thank,  Trust  and 
Work  in  Love,  without  ceasing  to  make  His 
paths  straight,  to  take  away  the  barriers,  so  that 
generations  to  come  may  call  us  blessed  while 
they  walk  in  the  paths  of  righteousness,  of  love, 
of  service  one  to  another  without  fear.  We  must 
follow  the  pointing  of  the  finger  which  shows 
the  better  way.  We  must  make  possible  the 
glorious  prophecy  that  the  Lion,  the  strong,  shall 
lie  down  with  the  Lamb,  the  weak,  to  shelter, 
protect  and  raise  instead  of  oppress  and  devour, 
to  be  loved  and  trusted  instead  of  hated  and 
feared.  Ye  believe  in  God?  Then  ye  must  be- 
lieve in  this.  The  Christ  did  not  die  for  a  theory 
but  for  a  truth,  sublime  but  most  practical.  If 
we  fail  to  join  in  the  battle  for  this  truth  we 
make  of  Him  a  mockery,  and  the  truth  for  which 
He  died  will  yet  prevail  in  spite  of  us.  Listen 
to  one  crying  in  the  Wilderness !  ]\Iake  His 
paths  straight.  The  Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  at 
hand,  take  heed  when  it  comes  lest  ye  be  found 
among  the  generations  of  vipers,  hypocrites,  chil- 
dren of  Mammon. 

You  want  to  know  what  all  this  means?  You 
demand  something  more  definite  than  passionate 
exclamations?  You  shall  have  it.  At  the  bot- 
tom of  all  this  wilderness  of  contradictions  and 
inconsistencies  of  our  social  fabric  there  is  a 
primal  cause.  That  cause  is  to  be  found  in  the 
desperate  effort  to  cling  to  a  worn  out  system  of 
morals  and  economic  ethics.  With  our  advance 
in  the  mechanical  arts  and  improvement  of  the 
means  of  production,  unparalleled  in  the  history 
of  the  world,  the  svstem  of  law  governing  the 


JESUS    OR    MAMMON?  223 

relations  of  man  to  man  and  regulating  the  award 
and  distribution  of  the  said  production  have  re- 
mained practically  at  a  standstill.  Instead  of 
keeping  pace  with  the  advance  on  the  one  hand 
in  the  art  of  production,  by  adapting  the  system 
governing  the  producer  to  that  of  the  changed 
conditions,  we  are  stubbornly  refusing  to  recog- 
nize that  which  may  have  been  of  social  and 
political  economy  under  former  conditions  have 
become  the  most  damnable  lies.  Political  equal- 
ity has  become  a  dead  letter.  In  place  of  chattel 
slavery  a  system  of  exploitation  has  sprung  into 
existence  and  shelters  itself  under  a  system  of 
laws  originally  intended  to  guarantee  the  rights 
of  the  individual.  The  result  is  that  the  condi- 
tion of  the  large  mass  of  productive  toilers  is  one 
in  which  they  suffer  all  the  evils  of  chattel  slav- 
ery without  any  of  the  mitigating  advantages  of 
that  institution.  It  is  not  merely  the  assertion  of 
a  fanatical  devotee  of  an  ism  to  say  that  the  fore- 
going statement  is  a  fact.  One  has  only  to  have 
the  very  common  experience  of  being  compelled 
to  seek  or  hold  the  employment  necessary  to 
earn  daily  bread  for  self  and  dependents,  to  learn 
how  bitterly  true  it  is  that  those  who  live  by  the 
sweat  of  the  brow  are  the  victimized  creatures  of 
him  who  holds  the  purse  strings.  This  being  a 
fact,  what  wonder  that  the  worship  of  Mammon 
is  the  only  one  which  enlists  serious  devotees? 
Time  was  when  a  man  willing  to  work  could  take 
his  little  kit  of  tools  and  go  out  into  the  world 
with  the  assurance  that  at  least  a  fairly  equitable 
portion  of  what  he  produced  would  be  his.  Nor 
did  the  worker  need  dread  that  for  the  chance  to 
work,  to  produce,  he  would  have  to  bargain  away 
not  only  the  greater  part  of  his  product  but  even 


224  SUPPLE-MEXT. 

his  personal  freedom.  Little  by  little  the  cunning 
of  the  workman  and  even  his  physical  strength 
became  less  and  less  a  factor  of  importance  in 
production.  The  introduction  of  labor-saving 
machinery  constantly  reduces  the  percentage  cost 
of  manual  labor  and  increases  that  of  plant  and 
machinery.  Now,  while  it  is  an  undisputable 
fact  that  labor-saving  machinery  results  in  im- 
proving the  material  condition  of  the  people  at 
large,  it  is  equally  indisputable  that  under  the 
present  system  of  exploitation  it  gives  the  em- 
ploying, the  capitalistic  element,  enormously  in- 
creased power.  There  is  no  doubt  that  a  large 
percentage  of  the  people,  even  the  wage-working 
people,  enjoy  material  conveniences  and  even 
luxuries  unthought  of  before  the  extensive  intro- 
duction of  labor-saving  devices.  There  is  also 
no  doubt  that  the  percentage  of  product  retained 
by  the  producer  has  suffered  great  decrease  from 
the  same  cause.  This  condition  leads  to  so-called 
over  production  and  those  periods  of  industrial 
depression  are  commonly  known  as  Panics.  A 
panic  is  not  the  result  of  over  production.  Panics 
and  hard  times  are  the  direct  result  of  a  gradual 
withdrawing  of  the  purchasing  power  from  the 
producing  masses.  As  an  illustration  we  will  sup- 
pose that,  through  the  improvement  in  machinery 
a  man  receiving  two  dollars  per  day  is  able  to 
produce  ten  dollars  worth  of  shoes ;  he  has  added 
to  the  supply  ten  dollars  worth  but  is  only  able 
to  purchase  two  dollars  worth.  If  millions  of 
people  produce  more  than  they  can  purchase  in 
the  same  proportion  and  the  residue  is  absorbed 
by  a  small  non-producing  minority,  the  time  must 
come  at  more  or  less  regular  intervals  when  both 
the  product  and  the  purchasing  medium  will  be 


JKSUS    OR    MAMMON?  225 

concentrated,  a  few  hands  will  possess  all,  with 
the  many  impoverished.  Then  comes  the  so- 
called  slack  in  the  market.  Money  becomes 
cheap  because  industries  are  at  a  standstill.  This 
piling  up  of  produce  and  idleness  of  capital  is  not 
the  result  of  over-production.  If  there  was  real 
over-production  and  just  social  distribution  there 
would  be  no  want  and  starvation.  Want  and 
starvation  are  rampant  at  times  when  the  prod- 
uct of  labor  finds  no  ready  market.  When  cor- 
porations declare  the  greatest  dividends  and 
the  capitalist  talks  about  prosperity  based  on 
enormous  profits,  then  a  panic  is  near  at  hand. 
This  must  be  so  because  the  larger  the  per- 
centage of  profits,  the  less  is  the  percentage 
of  purchasing  power  left  in  the  hands  of  thb 
producer,  who  is  also  the  consumer.  Now, 
at  the  bottom  of  this  lies  the  fact  that  the  in- 
troduction of  machinery  has  compelled  the  pro- 
ducer to  join  with  many  of  his  fellows  in  the  use 
of  expensive  equipment  which  in  turn  is  con- 
trolled by  private  individuals  who  have  all  the 
power  of  life  and  death  without  any  of  the  re- 
sponsibilities to  which  even  the  veriest  despot  of 
a  potentate  must  yield  consideration.  All  of  this 
enormous  advantage  depends  on  a  man's  having 
money.  It  is  not  wonderful  then  that  men  will 
go  any  length  to  obtain  that  which  gives  them  a 
chance  to  exploit,  i.  e.,  eat  up  their  fellows  in- 
stead of  being  eaten  and  exploited  by  them  ?  Yet 
the  very  fact  that  the  getting  of  w^ealth  is  only  a 
choice  of  dilemmas  makes  it  impossible  for  the 
possessor  of  wealth  to  be  happy.  No  sooner  does 
a  man  accumulate  large  wealth  and  proceed  to 
use  it  for  the  purpose  of  exploiting  his  fellows, 
than  he  in  turn  becomes  the  object  of  universal 


226  SUPPLEMEXT. 

attack.  To  defend  himself  against  the  on- 
slaughter  and  keep  possession  of  his  power  he 
must  brutahze  himself  (if  he  has  not  already 
done  so  in  the  getting),  and  his  fear  and  sus- 
picion of  his  fellows  destroys  all  chance  of  hap- 
piness. We  see  by  all  this  that  we  have  arrived 
at  a  high  stage  of  productive  advancement,  but 
that  our  system  of  social  distribution  is  entirely 
wanting  in  serving  the  best  interests  of  humanity, 
rich  and  poor  alike.  The  poor  are  compelled  to 
compromise  themselves  and  harden  their  hearts 
in  order  to  live  and  even  partially  respond  to  the 
claims  of  those  dependent  on  them.  The  rich 
likewise  must  steel  themselves  against  every 
human  impulse  and  choke  off  every  high  aspira- 
tion lest  they  be  thrown  back  among  the  poor. 
How  little  chance  is  offered  by  such  conditions 
to  practice  the  love  law  of  Jesus  Christ,  those 
who  have  conscientiously  tried  to  do  so,  can  best 
make  answer.  If,  therefore,  conditions  are  such 
as  to  make  a  consistent  Christian  life  a  practically 
impossible  life,  ought  not  every  Christian  bestir 
himself  to  remedy  the  evil? 

You  ask  how  can  this  be  done?  In  the  first 
place,  you  and  I,  dear  brother,  must  clear  our 
minds  of  all  prejudice.  We  must  take  on  a  spirit 
of  unselfishness.  We  must  look  upon  things 
through  the  eyes  of  earnest,  devoted  love  for  the 
truth.  We  must  try  to  see  things  and  not  with- 
out fear  as  they  are,  as  He  saw  them  and  not  as 
we  have  become  accustomed  to  see  them.  We 
must  learn  to  distinguish  between  might  and 
right.  We  must  learn  to  look  through  the  laws 
of  conventionalities  of  man  and  see  the  law  of 
God,  of  Nature,  of  Love!  They  are  one  and  the 
same.    Having  done  this,  what  do  we  see?    We 


JESUS    OR    MAxMMON?  227 

see  the  law  of  God  made  of  no  effect.  We  see 
that  the  advance  of  civihzation  has  brought  with 
it  also  a  great  forward  stride  in  the  methods  of 
]\Iammon.  The  very  truths  upon  which  all  ad- 
vancement is  based  have  been  cunningly  con- 
strued to  blind  the  masses  and  make  their  vic- 
timization easier.  The  "divine"  right  of  rulers, 
feudal  and  paternal  institutions,  chattel  slavery 
and  all  other  crude  devices  of  former  ages  by 
which  the  few  sought  to  live  upon  and  tyrannize 
the  many,  have  been  ripenend  and  developed  into 
the  perfectly  effective  modern  Giant  Capitalist. 
The  sacred  (  ?)  fetishes  of  the  rights  of  property, 
usury,  capital,  have  developed  into  a  perfect  sys- 
tem of  exploitation  such  as  only  modern  civiliza- 
tion could  produce.  Under  a  system  of  laws 
which  seeks  to  establish  the  right  to  get  by  what- 
ever means  is  available  and  which  makes  sacred 
the  right  of  the  getter  to  keep  what  he  has,  re- 
gardless of  the  common  weal.  Mammon  has 
indeed  become  King,  and  to  be  poor  in  posses- 
sions is  to  be  worthless  of  consideration.  This 
is,  if  ye  will  hear  it,  the  short  reign  of  that  Father 
of  liars  which  the  Master  said  must  come.  The 
cure  for  this  state  of  affairs,  the  defeat  of  this 
Mammon  of  unrighteousness,  the  freeing  of 
humanity  must  come  through  the  abolition  of 
private  oivnership  of  the  means  of  production. 
The  means  of  production  must  be  returned  to  the 
people.  The  product  of  labor  must  be  assured 
to  the  producer.  In  other  words,  if  we  would 
make  material  conditions  and  social  environment 
such  as  to  permit  of  the  consistent  following  out 
of  the  precepts  of  the  Christ,  if  we  would  make 
the  natural  law  of  love  a  possible  practice  of  daily 
life,  if  we  would  do  away  with  the  present  rule 


225  SUPPLEMENT. 

of  envy,  conflict  and  Mammon,  we  must  bring 
about  the  introduction  of  Socialism.  We  have 
too  long  stood  aloof ;  we  have  been  befooled  too 
long  by  those  who  wrongly  think  their  interests 
at  stake,  to  think  that  Socialism  is  a  form  of 
anarchism,  the  fruit  of  abnormal  brains  equally 
wedded  to  a  destruction  of  religion,  law  and 
order.  This  is  far  from  the  truth.  If  you  will 
take  the  time  and  trouble  to  impartially  study 
the  principles  of  Socialism  and  the  declarations 
of  its  authoritative  expounders,  you  will  find,  as 
I  have,  that  they  have  an  abhorrence  of  all  vio- 
lence. You  will  be  surprised  to  learn  (it  is  sur- 
iprising  that  you  read  the  daily  papers  without 
Jearning)  that  the  lawlessness  is  on  the  side  of 
Mammon,  of  private  ow^nership,  of  arrogant  co- 
operative power.  You  will  find  that  the  principal 
grievance  of  the  true  Socialist  is  that  the  law  can 
not,  under  present  conditions,  be  enforced.  You 
will  also  find  that  the  enemies  of  Socialism,  the 
ones  who  make  every  effort  to  misrepresent  and 
malign  Socialism,  recognize  no  law  save  self- 
interest.  You  will  find  that  enemies  of  So.cialism 
are  the  real  anarchists  in  that  they  never 
hesitate  to  violate  the  law  when  their  interests 
are  at  stake,  while  they  put  forth  every  effort  to 
defeat  any  popular  advancement.  For  the  most 
part  you  will  find  that  they  succeed  because 
money  is  power  and  they  have  money.  It  is  true 
that  many  of  the  leaders  in  this  new  thought  are 
of  foreign  birth  and  that,  owing  to  the  depravel 
ideals  with  which  the  word  religion  and  Chris- 
tianity has  ever  been  associated  in  their  native 
lands,  they  avow  themselves  as  abhorrent  of  any 
form  of  institutional  religion.  In  their  minds  all 
institutional     religion     must    necessarily    stand 


JESUS   OR    MAMMON?  229 

only  for  tyranny  of  the  worst  sort.  But 
if  you  will  look  at  the  principles  advocated 
by  these  men  without  prejudice  you  will  soon 
see  that  there  is  no  antagonism  in  principle 
toward  what  you  and  I,  under  more  fortu- 
nate surroundings,  recognize  as  Christianity. 
Even  if  it  were  true  that  up  to  the  present 
this  idea  had  been  principally  championed  by 
those  who  are  not  of  the  household  of  faith,  is 
that  a  reason  why  we  should  refuse  to  see  the 
truth?  Did  our  forefathers  refuse  political  free- 
dom because  some  of  its  stoutest  and  most 
efifective  advocates  gloried  in  being  called  in- 
fidels ?  Certainly  not.  Even  in  our  time  we  have 
seen  no  good  Republican  minister  of  the  gospel 
refuse  to  vote  his  ticket  because  the  redoubtable 
Bob  Ingersol  voted  the  same.  It  is  therefore  not 
a  question  of  what  other  kind  of  people  vote 
and  work  for  Socialism  or  what  they  expect  to 
gain  by  its  introduction.  The  fact  which  we  have 
to  consider  is  that  Christian  ethics  and  the  present 
social  and  industrial  economy  are  antagonistic 
and  at  variance.  As  Christians  we  must  seek 
to  change  this.  ]\Iammon  sits  enthroned.  As 
Christians  we  want  to  enthrone  Jesus.  If  Social- 
ism will  do  this  every  true  Christian  must  become 
a  Socialist.  Come  see  for  yourselves.  As  a 
brother,  I  say  it  will.  You  need  not  take  my 
word.  Read,  work,  love.  You  will  surely  come. 
You  cannot  be  neutral.  We  do  not  need  "Chris- 
tian Socialism,"  we  need  Socialism  in  order  to 
live  as  Christians  should  live.  Therefore,  I  know 
it  will  come  because  I  believe  in  Jesus.  Now  it 
is:  Jesus  or  Mammon.  Jesus  is  bound  to  win. 
When  He  wins  do  you  want  to  come  with  Jesus 
into  power  through  Socialism  or  with  Mammon 


230  SUPPLEMENT. 

dethroned,  in  spite  of  Capitalism?  You  must 
decide,  my  brother.  Whatever  you  decide  do  it 
quickly.  Time  is  precious  for  both  sides.  Jesus 
or  Mammon? 


THE  PASSING  OF  CAPITALISM 

AND 

THE  MISSION  OF  SOCIALISM 

By  ISADOR  LADOFF. 


Throughout  its  thirty-four  chapters  "The  Passing  of 
Capitalism"  is  a  masterly  arraignment  of  the  capitalist 
system  and  an  analysis  of  capitalist  society  in  language 
at  once  trenchant  and  captivating. — Social  Democratic 
Herald. 

A  book  of  profound  philosophic  thought  and  great 
erudition. — Revue  Socialiste. 

Comrade  Ladoff's  work  is  the  first  that  has  appeared 
in  America  championing  Bernstein's  theories,  and  has 
met  with  the  same  disapproval  that  greeted  Bernstein. 
*  *  *  Thirty-five  chapters  are  contained  in  the  book, 
of  such  a  diverse  nature,  though  all  deal  with  the  sub- 
ject of  Socialism,  that  it  is  impossible  to  give  a  com- 
prehensive review  of  the  book  in  the  small  space  at  our 
command  and  do  it  justice.  The  best  that  we  can  do 
is  to  recommend  it  to  our  readers  with  the  assurance 
that  a  careful  study  of  it  will  well  repay  for  their  time. 
— James  Oneal,  in   The   Toiler. 

Cloth,  i6o  pages,  50  cents;  paper,  25  cents.  By  special 
arrangement  with  the  Standard  Publishing  Com- 
pany, we  are  enabled  to  supply  this  book  to  our 
stockholders  on  the  same  terms  as  our  own  pub- 
lications. 

CHARLES  H.  KERR  &  COMPANY  (Co-operative), 
56  Fifth   Avenue,  Chicago. 


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